Producers Marketing grateful for support

A few years ago, Scott Hart took over as head of Moultrie GA-based Producers Marketing, and started implementing changes to ensure the company was ahead of the curve and poised for the future. His actions have undoubtedly led to success, with improvements and growth to the packingshed and overall operations.

Rick McCranie, marketing manager for Producers Marketing, came on board in 2022 and has also been instrumental in the company’s growth.

“Everything went really well last season and I really want to thank everyone and let them know how we appreciate all the support with our label — people who were used to buying it, they all stuck with us and we even got some new customers,” he said. “We’re going to have the same positive outlook for this spring.”

In 2002, Producers Marketing increased its acreage on Bell peppers and cabbage, and this year, it will grow a similar program for peppers, cabbage, eggplant and squash. In all, it has approximately 350 acres between cabbage and mixed veg.

“We had a really good spring and fall season put together, which is kind of unusual — usually it’s one is really good and the other ok, and it’s hard to put back-to-back seasons, but we packed cabbage until the first part of February because the market was so good,” McCranie said. “Everything went really well.”

In mid-April, Producers Marketing started cabbage for 2023 and the growing season has looked strong early on, though cabbage is starting at the lower range of the market, and the company expects things to ease up and climb into the summer months.

“I expect Bell peppers to be good for the spring, it always starts out close to $20 for those who can get started early and then it levels off, but we’re optimistic that it will be a good season,” McCranie said. “Hot peppers and specialty peppers have really seemed to be a good item to us. We’ve added a few items in the specialty pepper segment. It seems the market has really held well throughout the season — they start high and rarely slip off. It’s been a really good deal for us.”

The company expects that to go until July, and is looking forward to continuing seeing the Hart label grow in prominence.

“There are some items we have been interested in trying to start — Scott will try anything, he likes to be diverse,” McCranie said. “We’ve tried something new every season. Last year we tried some new varieties of peppers we’ve never had. We started growing Anaheims, and some of the specialty items have really hit a niche with people and the prices have been good. Every year someone will ask him if he has something, so he’ll try to grow it if he can.”

Elsewhere around the company, Jake Hart, who recently graduated from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, is set to take over the packinghouse in 2023. He’s worked in the business since he was young and is looking forward to coming back and working full-time as operations manager for the shed.

“We’ve found a really good sweet spot between customer base and how much we’re growing, and how much we can handle,” McCranie said.