(Photo – Love these old buildings scattered throughout rural Georgia)
I’ve already been in the Vidalia sweet onion shipping district in Southeastern Georgia and you can expect loading opportunities to be pretty normal this year – if diease doesn’t start showing up in the crop. It’s really too early to tell. If problems do arise it probably won’t be realized, at least to its full extent, until the harvest begins.
Harvesting should get underway around April 10 or so. There is about 12,600 acres of onions planted, which is pretty normal. The big question surrounds about 12 inches of rain the area got over a two-week period the first half March. We’ll just need to watch this situation closely to see if any quality problems come out of it.
This week I’m spending a few days in Central and South Georgia visiting with vegetable shippers as well as peach shippers. Checking with these guys to see how loading opportunities should be panning out for you this spring and summer.
At the same time I’m going to be scoping out several of the truck stops scattered along Interstate 95, primarily between Macon, GA and the Florida state line. I’m looking forward to talking with drivers about their concerns, how their business is doing and generally just have some good visits.
Perhaps we’ll meet up sometime out on the road this week.