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Friday, May 18, 2007

Big peach losses in middle Georgia

Losses to Middle Georgia's peach crop are much worse than expected. Growers in Peach County expected to lose about 50-percent of their crop after an Easter eve freeze. But now that harvesting has begun, it's looking closer to an 80-percent loss.

Trees that are normally loaded with peaches are producing just a small amount of fruit. Lane Packing has been in the peach business for almost 100 years. They say the freeze is one of the worst in the company's history.

However, according to company official Wendy Brown, the peaches they are harvesting taste good.

"the early varieties that we started picking on Saturday, they're small but tremendously sweet. The sun is what makes the peach sweet, but the size is not there because we have not had much rain".

The freeze is also impacting migrant workers. Normally Lane Packing employs close to 300 during the peach picking season, but this year they expect to have under 100.

GPB News Team: