Lumber prices are soaring, but the benefits are bypassing Georgia tree farmers.
The state’s sawmills cut production by 20 percent last year, fearing a pandemic-induced recession, but demand went through the roof, spurred by quarantine do-it-yourself projects.
The state has more trees than it has seen in decades, and mills are struggling to cut them fast enough. Tree growers, however, are receiving $23 dollars a ton for pine logs, which is half of what they got in 2000.
Georgia pine lumber was selling for $350 dollars per thousand board feet in January 2020. By the end of the year, it was $748 dollars and hit close to $1,000 dollars this month.
Georgia sold $679 million dollars worth of wood in 2019.
Related Stories
The Farm Monitor takes us to the Georgia Citrus Growers annual conference in Tifton to learn more about the opportunities and challenges they face.
As peach trees bloom ahead of schedule and unpredictable weather patterns loom, farmers across the nation find themselves grappling with the precarious risks posed to their fruit crops.
Louisiana’s crawfish industry is in turmoil as extreme weather conditions wreak havoc on what is leftover to harvest, threatening significant financial losses of around $140 million.
