The U.S. Department of Agriculture released data from the 2022 Census of Agriculture in early 2024. The Census of Agriculture provides information on farm-level acres and sales for most crops, and allows us to compare how farm enterprises have changed over time. In this article, it is evaluated how southern berry production has evolved over the past 15 years. Overall, there has been growth in the berry industry in terms of number of operations, and average berry farm size across the region.
Berry Area
The area in berries in the South totaled 82,436 acres in 2022, as shown in Figure 1. This figure includes both bearing and non-bearing berry area. Georgia led the way with 30,291 acres in berries followed by Florida at 25,491 acres. All states in the region except for Mississippi and Virginia increased their berry acreage between 2017 and 2022. Texas led the way with a 57% increase in berry area from 2017 to 2022, with Georgia close behind at a 56% increase. The southern region outpaced the U.S. in berry area growth, as the U.S. as a whole increased by 18% over the five-year period whereas berry area in the South increased by 38%. The southern states shown in the map accounted for 23% of U.S. berry acreage in 2022.
Operation Scale
The number of berry operations has increased by 15% from 2017 to 2022, up to 12,794 operations (Figure 2). This follows the 26% increase that occurred from 2012 to 2017. While both berry acres and operations have increased, acreage has exceeded the increase in the number of farms, which has resulted in an increase in the average size of a berry operation. From 2017 to 2022, the average berry operation in the South increased from 5.3 to 6.4 acres per operation. However, this increase was largely driven by Georgia and Florida, which averaged 19.9 and 15.9 berry acres per operation in 2022, respectively. The majority of the region's states averaged between 1 and 3 berry acres per operation.
This increase in berry operation size is likely due to economies of scale, which occur when the cost per unit of output decreases as the amount of output produced increases. This means that larger farms exhibit a lower cost of production per acre. For example, a grower that invests in a mechanized harvester would decrease the average cost of the machinery by using the harvester on a larger number of acres, hence reducing the cost per acre and per unit of berries harvested. Additional economies of scale may come from hiring labor (e.g. through the H-2A program) or other machinery and input use.
Conclusion
There has been continued growth in the number of berry operations, the average size of berry operations, and total area in berry production in the South. Florida and Georgia lead the region in these categories, but most states have had growth. Overall, the region has increased its presence in the U.S. berry market, and berry enterprises make up a larger proportion of farms' total sales.
However, high input prices pose a challenge for small-fruit operations, similar to other specialty crop farms. High labor costs have precipitated demand for mechanization and automation and increased reliance on the H-2A guest-worker program. Given the nature of these programs, it is likely that berry operations will continue to exhibit economies of scale and become larger to benefit from the cost advantages.
Source: smallfruits.org