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cooling down at night is known to enhance a peach’s red color, but it stops crucial sugar development.”
Greencastle, PA-based Keystone Fruit Marketing sells peaches from Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. “The entire East Coast grows high-quality, high- color and great-tasting peaches,” says Mike Blume, director of sales and marketing. “What has changed over the years, other than the quality getting better and being more consis- tent, is the Southern region has expanded to
the East Coast. New Jersey always had a great reputation for peaches, but now areas like Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania are getting recognized as having excellent peaches, too.”
Florida’s peaches help generate spring interest in domestic peaches, says Mindy Lee, Fresh from Florida communications and media manager for the Florida Depart- ment of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS). “Florida growers aren’t looking to supplant other markets,” she says. “They want to complement the peach category by filling
the gap between South American and tradi- tional North American markets with consis- tent volume.”
AN EATING EXPERIENCE
Southeast peaches possess eating charac- teristics retailers desire, says Benjie Richter, partner with Charlotte, NC-based Richter and Co., Inc., which markets for growers in South Carolina, Alabama and West Virginia. “Our fruit does eat better than the Western fruit, due to our climate,” he says. “Our fruit has more juice. It has a different sugar-acid
SOUTH CAROLINA
The Palmetto State is the largest producer of peaches on the East Coast, and the second overall U.S. producer. The state markets its peaches’ flavor.
“Our slogan is we are the tastier peach state,” says Katie Pfeiffer, director of merchandising for the South Carolina Department of Agriculture (SCDA). “We have a sweeter and more acidic peach. We have a longer season than others in the Southeast, from May to August, maybe into September sometimes when we have a good year. We have a lot of varieties, which produce the flavor.”
Thanks to improved varieties, South Carolina growers begin harvesting a week to 10 days earlier than they did in the past, with shipments beginning May 5-10, depending on weather. “We can go longer into September than our compe- tition,” says Matt Forrest, co-owner of Dixie Bell Peaches, which grows and ships from Ridge Spring, SC. “We can set up programs that can carry retailers from the beginning to the end.”
South Carolina’s slightly acidic soils, hot days and humid nights enable growers to produce peaches ripened on the tree and ship longer past summer, explains Matt Cornwell, sales account manager of Titan Farms, Ridge Spring, SC. “Producers send peaches to market starting in May and harvest all the way into September, a longer season than other states,” he says. “Varieties grown in South Carolina are known for their perfect balance of sweet- ness and acidity. Growers in South Carolina combine generations of growing expertise with state-of-the-art packing facilities to put a ‘tastier peach’ in the box.”
Shipping peaches long distances can be problematic. “The advantage of
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Southeast peaches is that we can get them to market usually within a day,” says Greg Reighard, a professor emeritus and visiting professor of horticulture at Clemson University in SC. “How quickly we can get them to the market is a very important factor in the quality. Because the fruit is not in cold storage for very long or at all, that’s what differentiates Eastern and Southeast fruit. You need heat and temperature to produce quality peaches. We have that in the Southeast.”
South Carolina is known for its large- sized peaches. “We always grow a big peach,” says Kyle Tisdale, an SCDA marketing specialist. “South Carolina has has a good reputation for harvesting big, juicy sweet peaches.”
The state enjoys a strong peach repu- tation. “We always say we ripen ours on the tree,” says Joe Watson, co-owner of Jerrold A. Watson & Sons, based in Monetta, SC. “We don’t have to pick them earlier and don’t have to take them to storage conditions to ripen. They’re cooled and shipped. Anywhere and everywhere you go, if people mention peaches, they always talk about South Carolina. Having high-quality, high-sugar peaches is what consumers want and what we strive to give to them.”
Peaches with fewer food miles appeal to retailers, says Benjie Richter, partner with Richter and Co., Inc., Charlotte, NC. Southeast shippers are closer to most East Coast and Midwestern retailers, he says. “We can be to the Eastern corridor cities of Boston, Baltimore and Wash- ington, DC, and the Midwestern cities of Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit within 24 to 48 hours off the tree,” says Richter. “In most cases, our fruit is usually packed that day or the next day. You can’t get any fresher than that, which retailers realize. They like the freshness and the fact our fruit doesn’t have the food miles you have from California.”
Proximity to large-population areas also helps move South Carolina’s peaches. “Our state’s central U.S. East Coast location coupled with an integrated transporta- tion system of 41,000 miles of highways, means South Carolina is within a two-day drive of 75 percent of the U.S. population,” says Pfeiffer. “Today’s consumer is increas- ingly more aware of the distance their food travels. Sourcing more Certified South Caro- lina produce close to that population base makes great business sense.”
Because peaches were profitable when South Carolina growers began growing them, they were grown all over the state. Because of freezes, production has since focused on areas such as the Ridge, the sand hills and the Piedmont regions, says Watson. “Over the years, where peaches are now grown, there are microclimates amenable to growing peaches,” he says. “Other places went out of production because they had frost and couldn’t grow peaches. The people who are in it now are the ones who have been in it for years and grow only high-quality peaches.” pb