In this installment of the ‘Agronometrics In Charts’ series, we take a look at the upcoming Georgia peach harvest. Each week the series looks at a different horticultural commodity, focusing on a specific origin or topic visualizing the market factors that are driving change.

The Georgia peach industry is heading into the 2025 harvest with momentum and optimism. After weathering a devastating freeze in 2023, growth bounced back in 2024 with a strong crop, and this year is shaping up to be even better.

“We’ve received absolutely perfect growing conditions up until now,” said Will McGehee of Genuine Georgia, the state’s unified grower group. “It was cold enough through the winter for the trees to get proper dormancy, and the bloom in March was gorgeous. It’s been textbook peach growing weather.” That consistency is key. From November to February, temperatures stayed low, giving trees the chill hours they need to reset. When warmer weather hit, trees responded with a uniform and healthy bloom—something growers haven’t seen in several years. The optimism is further bolstered by the fact that the new orchards that were established over the past five years are now in full production. Yields are anticipated to increase by 15% from the previous year.

“We’re finally seeing the return on years of investment in new acreage,” McGehee said. By mid-April, tiny green fruit—about the size of olives—had formed across the orchards. Growers are deep into hand-thinning, a labor-intensive process that removes two-thirds of the fruit to make room for the best peaches to size up. Harvest is expected to begin May 7 or 8, about a week earlier than average. From there, the Georgia peach crop will move fast, reaching store shelves within 36 hours in markets across the East Coast, from Texas to Montreal to Miami. “For us, it’s all about freshness,” said McGehee.

“A juicy, sweet peach is what brings customers back.” One major shift in the industry is packaging. While Georgia peaches were once sold almost exclusively in bulk, 30% of this year’s crop is expected to go into pouch bags, offering convenience, brand visibility, and better shelf impact. “Bags make it easier for shoppers to connect with Georgia peaches,” McGehee noted. “They’re great for grab-and-go, and they give us a place to include handling tips and branding.” Genuine Georgia, formed in 2015, brought together the state’s growers under a single marketing banner. Before that, they were competitors. Now, they're a unified supplier serving top retail programs across the U.S. “We figured out we were better off working together,” McGehee said. “It’s made us stronger, and business has grown with every major retailer we work with.” 

Georgia's 2025 peach season is poised to produce one of the most robust crops in recent memory, as a result of the favorable conditions, increasing production, and healthy trees.

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.

(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

In our ‘In Charts’ series, we work to tell some of the stories that are moving the industry. Feel free to take a look at the other articles by clicking here.

All pricing for domestic US produce represents the spot market at Shipping Point (i.e. packing house/climate controlled warehouse, etc.). For imported fruit, the pricing data represents the spot market at Port of Entry. You can keep track of the markets daily through Agronometrics, a data visualization tool built to help the industry make sense of the huge amounts of data that professionals need to access to make informed decisions. If you found the information and the charts from this article useful, feel free to visit us at www.agronometrics.com where you can easily access these same graphs, or explore the other 21 commodities we currently track.