Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper yesterday joined state, federal, and agriculture industry leaders in Soperton, Ga., to announce that the preliminary estimate of Hurricane Helene’s economic impact on Georgia’s #1 industry, agriculture, is $6.46 billion, including preliminary direct losses to farm families & forest landowners of almost $3.2 billion.
“We have a long road ahead, but we will not stop working until we’ve delivered the relief Georgia farm families desperately need,” Harper wrote on X.
Meanwhile, in Florida, economists at the American Farm Bureau Federation estimate over $5.7 billion in damages to Florida’s agricultural sector due to Hurricane Milton. Vegetables are anticipated to experience the most losses, at $1.6 billion, followed by fruit and tree nuts, which are expected to see about $1.3 billion in damages. The estimates rely on 2022 U.S. Census of Agriculture data along with power outage data from Thursday.
