After Hurricane Michael ripped through Georgia, New Mexico leads nation in pecans
Adrian HeddenHurricane Michael made landfall in the southern United States last year, and wiped out large swaths of Georgia’s pecan crop, propelling New Mexico to become the national leader in production of the nut.
New Mexico produced about 90 million pounds of pecans in 2018, down about 2 million from 2017, per data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
But the state reported a growth of almost 50 million pounds in the last decade from 2008’s production of 43 million pounds.
Georgia, traditionally the United States' largest pecan-producing state, saw its crop crippled by the storm, cutting production by almost half from 107 million pounds to 56 million.
Texas was ranked third, records show, at 28 million pounds and Arizona was fourth at 25 million pounds.
Lenny Wells, associate professor of Horticulture with a focus on pecans at the University of Georgia, said 17 percent of the state’s pecan acreage was lost in the storm.
Georgia also lost about $100 million in pecan crops, and $260 million in tree loss and up to $200 million in lost future income, Wells said.
“The damage we suffered from the hurricane was pretty bad,” Wells said. “Along its path, we had some pretty severe devastation.”
The storm landed in the Florida panhandle on Oct. 10, 2018, and quickly moved into Georgia’s southwest corner with winds up to 125 miles per hour.
It proceeded into the state with winds maintained at about 100 miles per hour, uprooting and destroying pecan orchards along the way.
Wells said trees were not only destroyed, but surviving pecan trees would need months or years to regrow, as damage to underground root systems was difficult to spot and mitigate.
“It takes a lot to get them back,” Wells said. “That hurt us for the past year. The storm came about a week before the main harvest. A lot of orchards were not even able to harvest. We expect this year to be an off year.”
Hurricane Michael was the first Category 3 hurricane to impact Georgia since the 1890s, read a report from the National Weather Service.
“We’ve had tropical storms, but not to this extent,” Wells said. “They usually slow down before they get here.”
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Wells said he consulted with growers in other pecan-producing states including Alabama and Louisiana, which were also impacted in the past by extreme weather.
He said crops tend to recover quickly, and Georgia’s industry should begin recovering next year.
But experts said that it could take up to 15 years for a newly-planted tree to draw a profit.
“(Pecans) tend to come back surprisingly well,” Wells said. “We’re hopeful next year will be better than this year.”
In the meantime, federal and state relief funding is being used in the cleanup, and Wells said the UGA Extension is meeting with growers throughout the state to identify strategies to rebuild.
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New Mexico poised to lead nation
About 97 percent of New Mexico’s 92 million pounds of pecans were produced in five of the state’s 33 counties in 2017, per the most recent data from the USDA’s New Mexico Annual Bulletin.
And most of it is in the south.
About 66.9 million pounds or 73 percent of the statewide crop came from Doña Ana County, records show, with Eddy County producing about 10.4 million pounds or about 11 percent of New Mexico’s pecans.
Other producing counties included Chaves County at about 9 percent of the state’s crop, Luna County at 2 percent and Sierra County which produced about 670,000 pounds or 0.8 percent.
Woods Houghton, Eddy County extension agent with New Mexico State University said the state’s dry, warm weather helps the pecan industry grow, but it’s really about nut quality.
New Mexico pecans are considered “improved varieties” not native to the state but ideal for its conditions.
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The Wester Schley is a top variety for New Mexico growers as it can produce about 52 percent nutmeat when shelled, while other native varieties to the east range at about 37 to 42 percent, Houghton said.
That means the nuts can be shipped out of shell, which allows greater quantities to move and increases quality, he said.
“As far as meat production, we’ve always been number one,” Houghton said. “All of our varieties are going to be above 50 percent (nutmeat). We’ve got some of the best pecans in the world. It’s pretty impressive because pecans are not native to New Mexico.”
New Mexico’s climate also cuts down on diseases and pests that could plague pecan orchards, he said, unlike the more humid conditions in the east.
“We don’t have nearly the diseases that they have back east,” Houghton said. “We have warm, dry weather. Good quality irrigation is what makes it happen. It’s a really good nut.”
Protein of the future?
Phillip Arnold, a pecan grower and buyer in the Mesilla Valley of southwest New Mexico in Doña Ana County, agreed that the conditions and nut quality drove New Mexico to prominence in the industry.
He also serves as president of the New Mexico Pecan Growers and sits on the American Pecan Council, observing national trends as New Mexico’s production steadily grew for the last decade.
“New Mexico has come into its own prominence because of the sunshine we have,” Arnold said. “We also produce a lot of pounds per acre.”
Arnold said pecans also grew in popularity during the last five years, as public awareness of health benefits increased, and exports to China ramped up.
Pecans are high in oils, and thus high in calories but are also rich in nutrients and provide a low-fat protein source, Arnold said.
“Nuts in general are being consumed more,” he said. “Pecans are very good for you. People are saying nuts are going to be the protein source of the future.”
ORCHARD INVASION:Pecan weevil threatens to upend NM's $180M industry
He said the only challenges are water availability in the arid desert region, and the presence of the pecan weevil in small groves in southeast New Mexico.
Houghton said the weevil was not found in large-scale commercial pecan operations in Eddy County but became prevalent in small yard trees tended by amateur growers who might accidentally spread the pest into other regions when selling and distributing their nuts.
The weevil burrows into the nut’s shell and consumes the meat, leaving the nut not consumable and worthless.
Houghton said eradicating the pest is difficult as they have a three-year life cycle and spend two years underground.
Eddy and several other counties in the southeast were placed under a “quarantine” by the USDA last year, which imposed greater regulations and oversight on pecans being shipped out of the quarantine zone into non-infected regions.
The nuts mostly head west to markets in Doña Ana County and El Paso and can be shipped in from infected areas in west Texas.
“We don’t really have too much weevil. It’s mostly in people’s backyards, not commercial orchards,” he said.
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And Arnold said the industry and the New Mexico Department of Agriculture is working to create more funding to address the problem by increasing staffing in affected areas and educating the public on the threat of the weevil.
“We’ve eradicated it before, and we’re confident we can do it again,” Arnold said. “We’re making some strides. The average person should be very careful about bringing pecans from Texas in shell. They not even know they have the weevil, but it keeps showing up.”
Adrian Hedden can be reached at 575-628-5516, achedden@currentargus.com or @AdrianHedden on Twitter.