RANKED: What are Georgia’s main fruit and vegetable crops (HINT: it’s not peaches)

Not trying to be the burster of bubbles here, but Georgia is “The Peach State” in name only. 

A total of 126 Georgia counties have zero commercial peach farming operations, while only five Georgia counties have more than 250 acres.

Nationally, Georgia typically ranks a distant third behind South Carolina, which ranks a very, very distant second to California, which grows roughly three times as many peaches as every other state combined.

Getting back to Georgia, peaches didn’t even crack the top 10 in 2022, in terms of Georgia food crops and their respective farm gates. Farm gate, by the way, basically means the dollar amount of a commodity if that commodity was purchased directly from the farm, as opposed to a wholesaler or retailer.

Here are the rankings:

1) Peanuts – $791 million

2) Corn (includes sweet corn) – $711  million

3) Blueberries – $449 million

4) Pecans – $401 million

5) Onions – $174 million

6) Bell Peppers – $153 million

7) Watermelon – $143 million

8) Soybeans – $103 million

9) Tomatoes – $84 million

10) Cucumbers – $82 million

11) Peaches – 81 million

12) Leafy greens – 68 million