News Pecan Harvest Shakes Loose – Bumper Crop Means Good Prices For Shoppers

Pecan Harvest Shakes Loose – Bumper Crop Means Good Prices For Shoppers

Pecan Harvest Shakes Loose – Bumper Crop Means Good Prices For Shoppers
December 4, 2001 |

An avalanche of leaves momentarily obscures the view as Jerry Ingram walks through his 600-acre pecan orchard near the central Alabama town of Lowndesboro. Ahead, a bright-red machine backs down the neatly mowed middle, pausing just long enough to grasp each tree in a lobster-like claw and give it an intense shake. Later, the pecans will be blown into the middle where Ingram’s harvester will gobble them up.It’s late autumn in pecan country, and for Ingram, that means the clock is ticking. In a few short weeks, shellers will fill their holiday orders, and the opportunity to capture a part of the gift pack market will be gone.”This time of year, it’s all about efficiency,” Ingram said. “We’ve got to get them harvested and dried down, so the shellers can get ready for the holiday market.”That’s particularly important this year, Ingram said, because, like other farmers, pecan growers are expecting a bumper crop and extremely low prices–prices, which after Christmas, will be even lower.”In Alabama, we’re expecting to harvest about 14-15 million pounds of pecans,” said Ingram, who is president of the Alabama Pecan Growers Association. “Normally, we’d get about $1.10-$1.40 a pound, but this year, pecans are selling for 65-85 cents a pound.”The reason for the sagging prices, experts say, is this year’s record crop is arriving when shellers are still trying to sell the higher-priced pecans they bought last year.Low prices for farmers, however, is good news for consumers, said Alabama Cooperative Extension System Horticulturist Dr. Bill Goff.”This is the best quality we’ve had in years, and from a consumer standpoint, the best price,” he said. “Since pecans will keep for up to two years in the freezer, if you want to stock up, now is the time to do it.”Goff said pecans tend to bear alternately, so trees that have a big crop this year, will likely have fewer nuts next year. Pecans, which are the only tree nuts that grow naturally in North America, are native to the river valleys of the eastern United States and Mexico. In Alabama, pecans are an important horticulture crop, accounting for more than 80 percent of all fruit and vegetable acreage and about 50 percent of horticulture cash receipts. Although the state ranks fifth in pecan production, Ingram said most of Alabama’s total crop is grown in orchards of 40 acres or less.”Pecan trees are an important part of Alabama agriculture because they produce a crop that farmers can take straight from the tree to the consumer,” he said. “I know a lot of farmers who have orchards for extra cash flow, and it provides them another way to diversify their farming operations.”

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