Beyond ‘Buy Local’: Georgia Grown Sees Successful Expansion

The Georgia Grown label carries weight far beyond state lines.

Georgia Grown is a brand promotional program and business development platform that has been successfully showcasing the best of Georgia’s produce for over a decade. Recent seasons, however, have indicated that the program can work just as successfully outside Georgia’s borders. Are there lessons to be learned for other states?

Developed by the Georgia Department of Agriculture, Georgia Grown is a platform that serves not just the fruit and vegetable industry, but also a range of related industries, including horticulture, seafood, agritourism, forestry, livestock, and the restaurant and retail trade.

For the fresh produce industry, the Georgia Grown program showcases Georgia’s abundance and diversity of fresh fruits and vegetables and helps growers and value-added processors retain economic value within the state, says Sarah Cook, director of business development for the Georgia Department of Agriculture (GDA).

“We produce an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, much more than the entirety of the state can consume,” Cook says. “So we’re always looking at advocating and educating the public outside of Georgia about the wonderful produce that we have here in Georgia.”

For the Genuine Georgia Group, a company based in Fort Valley in Georgia’s Peach County, the benefits of being involved in the program have become even clearer over the past 12 months.

Founded in 2008 by three fifth-generation Georgia peach growers — Will McGehee, Kent Hoots and Duke Lane III — the Genuine Georgia Group offers pecans, and, more recently, mandarins, as well as peaches, all of which carry the Georgia Grown label.

“We have seen tremendous support with the current team at Georgia Grown. They truly understand what it means to help growers and marketers go out to retailers and customers and sell Georgia-grown product,” says Lane.

“It’s not just a marketing campaign for the department of ag. It’s a marketing campaign to help the growers, and they’ve been a tremendous help to our Georgia peach industry, citrus industry, and pecan industry.”

Lane says a key objective of Georgia Grown is go beyond the state’s borders to tout the high quality of the state’s produce.

GROWING STRONG

Genuine Georgia embarked on an ambitious promotional campaign with Georgia Grown in 2024 after experiencing what McGehee describes as “one of the best peach seasons ever.”

“We really had a vintage year last year on peaches, and we’re looking at repeating it this year: perfect weather, really great-sized crop, high-quality peaches, and we’re excited to follow up a wonderful season with another one this summer.”

Georgia Grown helped highlight Genuine Georgia peach boxes in Midwestern Kroger stores last summer, which Lane describes as an “absolute, huge success.”

“It was a joint-branded box: it had the Kroger logo on it, but also the Georgia Grown logo right beside it,” he explains. “We were everywhere from Indianapolis through Louisville, Cincinnati, OH, up to Detroit, MI. We went across the upper Midwest with this promotion, and they knocked it out of the park.

“We took this opportunity to Georgia Grown, they helped us partner with Kroger, and the three of us came together and did this inaugural program last summer, and it was such a huge success that in September, they were already calling us again, asking, ‘what are we going to do next year,’ because they saw such a spike in their sales during that time.”

Such outcomes rarely come together, according to Lane, but the result was a win for the retailer, a win for the grower, and a positive test for the Georgia Grown brand outside the borders of the state.

GDA’s Cook says it’s easy to track the success of partnerships like the one with Kroger and Genuine Georgia via sales, but the strength of Georgia Grown is also about “building relationships and and realizing sales later on. Sometimes, when we’re talking about building trade, it can take years of building relationships.”

SHOWCASE THE STATE

Headquartered in Glennville, GA, Bland Farms has the distinction of being the largest grower, packer, and shipper of another major Georgia crop, Vidalia sweet onions. The company is a proud participant in the Georgia Grown program, according to Chief Executive Troy Bland, using the Georgia Grown branding across all its Vidalia Sweet Onion packaging, marketing and point-of-sale materials.

“Bland Farms is deeply rooted in Georgia agriculture,” he says. “Being part of the Georgia Grown program allows us to showcase that connection and highlight our commitment to locally grown produce.”

Bland says the company integrates Georgia Grown branding across multiple Vidalia Sweet Onion touchpoints, from in-store displays and packaging to digital marketing and promotional materials.

“It’s featured prominently on our Vidalia Sweet Onion bags and cartons, as well as on signage at retail to grab attention and tell the story of where our produce comes from,” he says. “For us, it’s more than a logo — it’s a shorthand for quality, traceability, and Southern-grown pride. It helps retailers connect with customers who want to support local agriculture, even from miles away.”

AUTHENTIC IMAGE

But the positive impacts of the Georgia Grown program have not been felt just by growers, but also by companies that work on the service side of the industry.

Alongside the symbols of its own divisions and brands, the Georgia Grown logo features prominently on the webpage of Nickey Gregory Company, a distributor, repacker, and processor based at the Atlanta State Farmer’s Market.

According to vice president of development and marketing, Andrew Scott, Nickey Gregory forms a “big part” of the Georgia Grown program as a platinum member. “We’re big supporters of what’s grown here, plus a lot of our customer base is in Georgia,” he says.

To this end, Scott says the company features the Georgia Grown logo on the front of its headquarters, and on all of its trucks and trailers, as well as on packaging if it includes a Georgia-produced item.

“Georgia Grown helps our business — we’re able to get fresher products with Georgia Grown items,” he says. “We distribute to 11 states out of Atlanta, so a lot of those Georgia Grown products will be going all across the Southeast.”

During 2024, the company created a new retail support division that services independent chain stores and retailers throughout Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. According to Scott, Nickey Gregory is expanding the new venture during 2025, as well as continuing to grow its Family Fresh Foods fresh-cut processing business.

Based in Cordele, GA, watermelon grower Leger & Son is another active member of the Georgia Grown program, making use of the branding on its website and watermelon bins. “The bins are a great way to display our Georgia Grown pride at retail,” explains director of sales and marketing, Jordan Carter.

Carter says the Georgia Grown platform provides an excellent tool for marketing and promotion, as well as being a hub for events and education.

It has become a major promotional tool for producers and retailers alike, “creating an authentic image,” she says. “Today’s consumer wants transparency, which is critical for building trust with a brand. Buying local means preserving communities while growing economies.”

Another high-profile participant in the Georgia Grown program is Reidsville, GA-based Shuman Farms. A third-generation run family business, Shuman Farms also specializes in Vidalia onions, which company president and chief executive John Shuman describes as being “at the core of who we are.”

“As a Georgia-based family farm, it’s incredibly rewarding to champion the product that represents the heart of Georgia agriculture,” he says.

As a Georgia-based family farm, it’s incredibly rewarding to champion the product that represents the heart of Georgia agriculture.

– John Shuman, Shuman Farms, Reidsville, GA

For 2025, the company will be focusing on two initiatives — the trade-focused “Shuman Farms University” and the consumer-targeted “Champagne of Onions” campaign, which Shuman says are “designed to elevate the sweet onion category by improving in-store team knowledge and deepening consumer understanding of what makes Vidalias special.”

BUILDING TRUST

The Georgia Grown label carries weight far beyond state lines. “Whether we’re shipping to the Northeast, Midwest, or West Coast, customers recognize and trust the Georgia Grown brand,” says Troy Bland from Bland Farms.

“It signals authenticity, quality, and a direct connection to the source — and that resonates everywhere. It’s not just about pride in where we farm; it’s about giving people confidence in what they’re feeding their families.”

He also believes Georgia Grown is benefiting from being part of the wider “Buy Local” movement, which is helping connect growers with their own communities and regions.

“The ‘Buy Local’ movement has changed the way people shop. For producers, that’s a huge opportunity,” says Bland. “Whether you’re in Georgia or California, local branding helps tell a story that resonates with today’s consumers. It builds trust, drives loyalty, and keeps dollars circulating in local economies. It’s not just a trend — it’s a shift in values, and it’s reshaping the way food is marketed and sold across the country.”

The Georgia Grown program works one-on-one with retailers, Cook says, “to tailor the collateral materials, because we know everyone’s produce section is going to be different.”

For example, Georgia Grown worked with Publix, specifically with their end caps for their buy local program, to identify products that are a good fit.

“We know our farmers face adversity every day due to circumstances beyond their control, and so we’re doing everything we can to help them bring that money back to the farm, to retain that money in the state of Georgia.”