COLUMBIA, SC — Supermarket produce departments can bank on an excellent volume of quality South Carolina peaches this summer, affirmed Martin Eubanks, South Carolina Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture, in a mid-July interview here. He is a 28-year veteran of the department and an old hand at riding the weather roller-coaster for produce crops.

He predicts a bountiful and juicy harvest this year, ending in early September. “We could easily top four million 25-pound boxes this season,” he told The Produce News (in 2014, 3.5 million boxes were shipped).This peach tree bears some of the bountiful and juicy fruit for the South Carolina peach harvest, which is in full swing in late July. South Carolina now has 20,000 acres of peach orchards, he estimates. “The outlook is good. We had a cold winter, received good rainfall and peach orchards received all the chill hours they need.”

Growers are bustling to get the crop in. At McLeod Farms in McBee, SC, for example, Kemp McLeod, a fourth-generation owner who grows 22 varieties of peaches on 650 acres, said workers have expanded from about 40 year-round to 200 for the harvest season, and 15-hour workdays are not uncommon. McLeod uses drip irrigation; high-speed wind machines that pull warmer air down into the orchards to save peach trees from frost damage; and in spring and early summer, a hail cannon which uses sonic waves to crush hail into harmless rain.

Chalmers R. Carr III, president of Titan Farms in Ridge Spring, SC, said the peach crop there was “the biggest and best in years.” He was interviewed July 16, when Titan had about half its crop harvested. “We’ve got a million boxes shipped, and a million boxes to go,” when harvest is finished around Sept. 12, he noted. Production is steady, he added, with about 100 tractor-trailers filled each week.

 The hot and dry weather raised the peaches’ sugar levels high, he said, making them extra sweet. Prices have drifted lower, he said, but demand remains strong and he expects prices to stabilize at normal levels. “Consumer reaction has been phenomenal to this year’s harvest, our retail partners tell us,” he observed.

Eubanks noted that the state ranks second in the nation in peach production with a peach industry valued at $130 million, right behind sprawling California and well ahead of Georgia, “The Peach State.” South Carolina’s location in the Southeast allows overnight shipments to reach much of the U.S. population. Other advantages include 842 miles of interstate highways and 9,500 miles of state primary roads, he said. “Water is abundant,” he commented, “and warm, humid growing conditions on slightly acidic, sandy loam soil provide outstanding quality and flavor in our products.”

Speaking of flavor: South Carolina peaches carry the slogan, “The Tastier Peach,” Eubanks noted, warning that “anyone eating a South Carolina peach with its natural juices will need two napkins.” The loam soil in the Upstate and The Ridge area of the state, where 80 percent of the state’s peaches are grown, gives them a distinctive sweet flavor, Eubanks stated.

Over his nearly three decades at the department, Eubanks said the number of produce Stock Keeping Units has grown from about 60 to more than 500—some SKU’s due to new varieties, others reflecting new processing for existing products, including peaches. In 2009, Yonce & Sons in Johnston, SC, began processing frozen sliced peaches, a first on the East Coast. Among the many customers for its Sweet Carolina Frozen Peaches was R J Rockers Brewing Co. in Spartanburg, SC, which used Yonce frozen peaches to make its “Son of a Peach” beer. In 2015, Titan Farms also began making peach puree.