The next time you buy local fruit, it could taste less sweet and cost more

HALL COUNTY, Ga. — Rain is on the way again and that's very bad news for some local farmers -- and your wallet.

All of this rain is hitting Georgia fruits especially hard.

Last year went down as one of the top 5 wettest years on record in Atlanta with over 70 inches of rain.

At Jaemor Farms in Hall County, they received 86 inches of rain soaking the fields and that proved to be detrimental to some of the crops, including their strawberries.

Severe Weather Team 2 Meteorologist Eboni Deon spoke to the general manager of Jaemor Farms, who said he's just hoping for some dry days.

“2018, it started out the gate really, really wet. In the fruit and vegetable industry excessive rain is not a good thing,” said general manager Drew Echols.

Strawberries were mostly affected, with substantial crop losses.

“Strawberries in particular, constantly having to clean up these fields. It’s a lot of labor, very time consuming for strawberries that were really no good,” Echols said.

Peaches are expected to not be as flavorful.

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“Excessive rain, flavor not as good as it should’ve been, too watery, not enough sugar, not enough sunlight,” Echols said.

Rain didn't only impact how the fruits and vegetables taste, but also how they are harvested

“We had to harvest when the sun was shining, we had to do our plowing when the ground dried out, really everything revolved around the rain in 2018,” Echols said.

With less being produced, the price goes up to make ends meet and that means you're paying more at the grocery store.

“Added expense with lighter yields, so that digs into profits in a hurry,” Echols said.

Unfortunately, there’s more rain in the forecast. But they are hoping for a drier 2019. For now, they’ve put down white tarps to help generate some early growth on their strawberries.

Cox Media Group