Industry damage in one state is estimated at US$3 billion
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
Officials are beginning to determine the extent of the damage from a severe storm.
Hurricane Michael caused about US$3-billion worth of destruction to the ag industry in Georgia, the state agriculture department says.
Major losses occurred in the timber (US$1 billion) and cotton (US$300 to $800 million) sectors. Pecan and vegetable growers, as well as the state’s poultry industry, also experienced multimillion dollar losses.
The hurricane’s impact on the cotton industry is especially tough as producers expected a profitable harvest.
“Many producers were looking forward to an above-average crop and had marketed their crop that way,” Richey Seaton, executive director of the Georgia Cotton Commission, told Farms.com. “That income would’ve helped them pay down some farm debt but, after the storm, that’s all changed.
“We produce cotton in 91 of the state’s 159 counties, and farmers in the southwest quadrant of Georgia lost their entire crop.”
Michael’s high winds and rains have also damaged cotton processing equipment. The whole state will feel the domino effect, Seaton said.
“Some cotton gins are down, and it’s still going to be weeks until some people get electricity back,” he said. “Any dollars that may have been spent in our local economies will now be directed back onto the farm. It’s a tough situation for the whole state of Georgia.”
Florida officials have yet to calculate a concrete dollar amount of damage in the state.
“Officials with the University of Florida should be able to provide a number in the coming weeks,” Alan Hodges, director of the university’s agriculture school’s economic impact analysis program, said in a statement Monday.
The university did, however, provide area damage estimates.
The hurricane affected about one million acres of field crops and 3.6 million acres of upland forest in Florida, Hodges said.
Florida’s cotton crop appears to be “a near-total loss” because nearly 90 percent of the crop remained in the field when Michael arrived. The state’s peanut crop is about 40 percent destroyed, Hodges said.
Georgia Department of Agriculture photo