(robust music) - [Presenter] This is "Carolina Business Review", major support provided by Colonial Life, providing benefits to employees to help them protect their families, their finances, and their futures.

High Point University, the Premier Life Skills University focused on preparing students for the world as it is going to be.

Sunoco, a global manufacturer of consumer and industrial packaging products and services with more than 300 operations in 35 countries.

- Welcome to "Carolina Business Review", the longest running and most widely watched program on Carolina business policy and public affairs.

Seen each week throughout the Carolinas for more than 30 years.

I'm Laura Ullrich, filling in for Chris William.

It's hard to believe that summer is nearly over.

This means we're also reaching the end of peach harvest season in the Carolinas.

And chances are, if you've eaten a peach or two this year, like I have, you've probably eaten a peach from Titan Farms, the largest peach grower on the East Coast.

Today, we'll learn more about the industry from Chalmers Carr, the founder and CEO of Titan Farms.

We begin in just a moment with our two expert panelists.

The conversation starts now.

- [Presenter] Major funding also by Truliant Federal Credit Union, proudly serving the Carolinas since 1952 by focusing on what truly matters, our members' financial success.

Welcome to brighter banking.

BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, an independent licensee of the BlueCross and BlueShield Association.

And Martin Marietta, a leading provider of natural resource-based building materials, providing the foundation on which our communities improve and grow.

On this edition of "Carolina Business Review", Peter Gwaltney from the North Carolina Bankers Association, James McQuilla from the Orangeburg County Chamber of Commerce.

And special guest, Chalmers Carr III, founder, president, and CEO of Titan Farms.

(robust music) - Peter and James, welcome back to the show.

Good to see you both here.

Hope you've both had a great summer.

- Definitely.

Thanks for having us.

- Definitely.

It's great to be here.

- Good, good.

So, I wanna jump right in and talk about growth in the Carolinas.

Both North and South Carolina have obviously seen tremendous economic growth over the last four years or so.

I'm curious from both of your vantage points, is this something you expect to continue?

What do you see happening as we go really into the end of 2024?

So, Peter, we'll start with you.

- Well, from a banking perspective and looking at the economy that we operate within, I don't see any end in sight.

The job growth, the companies and the people that are moving here, it's an exciting time.

We just need to make sure that we're ready for the infrastructure and all the other aspects that'll accommodate that growth.

- Absolutely.

- I 100% agree with Peter.

Everything he just mentioned, (Laura chuckles) I'm like, yeah, that's correct.

That's what we believe on the chamber side, South Carolina and North Carolina.

But being, coming outta South Carolina.

- Mm-hmm.

- South Carolina is becoming the destination place - Right.

- for a lot of folks.

California, New Jersey, Connecticut, West Virginia, they're taking a look.

We have a lot of space available.

The quality of life is really good and cost of living's not very high.

So, you're getting people moving down.

You're having industry take a look and see that it's a good opportunity to grow your business.

- Yeah, so, Peter mentioned infrastructure, and I'm curious in Orangeburg County, because I know a lot of these big economic development announcements have been in Berkeley County and closer to Charleston.

You guys are right next door.

- Right.

- But how does this growth impact a place that is a little more rural, like Orangeburg?

What is it?

Tell talk about infrastructure a little bit.

- So, I like to tell everybody we're next, and actually we're now.

- Yeah.

- Because the infrastructure's there.

Orangeburg is the second largest county based on land size in the state of South Carolina.

- Wow.

- So, we're bigger than Berkeley and we're bigger than Dorchester.

We have a large technical college there.

- Mm-hmm.

- We have two universities, two interstates come through.

We have the largest water source in the state in Lake Marion.

And we have 10 industrial parks with quite a few spec buildings already up.

So, we are ready.

We have the wastewater treatment facilities that are in place, and we're actually expanding the one near Santee.

So, I think a lot of folks, as they look over South Carolina and they say, well, can we go to this place or that place?

I'm not gonna mention any names, Charleston or Greenfield.

(Laura laughing) They're saturated, right?

But when you look at Orangeburg, they're like, wait a minute.

That place is huge.

There's water, there's the transportation, it's between the capital Columbia and Charleston.

It's near the port, hour and a half away, hour and 45 minutes away.

We have the infrastructure and we're ready.

- So, let me ask a follow up question about that, about education.

- Okay.

- How is the education system gonna keep up with this growth?

That's been a struggle for a lot of communities.

What's happening in Orangeburg with that?

- Quite a few things.

Actually, we're building some new schools now.

- [Laura] Okay.

- We have a consolidated - Yes.

- district.

So, there's one district for the entire county.

And I see a lot of movement in bringing in new teachers, changing the courses that the kids are offered.

We're just opening up a new charter school named after Willie Jeffries, the famous coach.

So, you have the Willie Jeffries School of Excellence just opened up.

We have a high school for health professions.

That's the charter school.

Our independent schools are growing.

We have several that are in the county.

And then, we have the public school system.

I have a motto.

Success is simple when we work together.

- [Laura] Mm.

- If we will understand that working together will bring us all success, whether you're private, public charter, by working together, everyone's gonna benefit.

We're all in the same boat.

So, the rising tide is gonna raise everyone.

- Yeah.

Excellent.

So, I'm gonna change topics a little bit and talk to you, Peter, about credit quality a bit.

- Yeah.

- There's been a lot of things in the news about credit card debt being up and delinquencies in some consumer credit starting to tick up a bit.

But we continue to also hear that credit quality is good.

So, what are you hearing from North Carolina bankers?

Are they worried about consumer credit quality?

- Well, I wouldn't say that they're worried.

They're monitoring it very closely as they always do.

Risk management is our business.

We've been waiting for the other shoe to drop, - Right.

- since the beginning of the pandemic, because we expected credit quality to deteriorate terribly during that time.

And it didn't.

And then, in the times following that, we thought, okay, now it's going to happen.

We'll see commercial credit and consumer credit deteriorate.

And it didn't.

And so, the consumer and small businesses and medium and large-sized businesses have all been very resilient through all of this.

And I think some of that is the underlying economy here in North Carolina - Mm-hmm.

- and nationally as well.

We've got good job growth, strong job growth here in North Carolina with lower unemployment than we have nationwide.

Again, with all the people moving in, the job creation, interest rates are coming down, just different things like that - Right.

- are all feeding an economy that's just seemed to keep rocking along.

- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

So, let's talk about jobs, a little more about jobs - Yeah.

- from both of your vantage points.

So, Peter, I'll start with you, but what are you seeing in banking employment?

Are there efforts to really go in and encourage younger people to go into banking?

Is that even needed?

What's happening in the employment space in banking?

- Absolutely.

Right now, there are 90,000 people employed in North Carolina banking alone.

It's a deep and diverse talent pool.

And we want to deepen it more and diversified even more.

And so, at the North Carolina Bankers Association, we have a concerted effort.

It's part of our strategic plan to go into the colleges and universities, the HBCUs, and encourage careers in banking.

We're going to career fairs, we're teaching classes on credit analysis in the universities.

We're hitting it from a number of different angles, so that students can meet bankers, they can learn from bankers, they can learn about banking - Mm-hmm.

- and see it as career that they can bank on for their future.

Because I started out as a banker right outta college and it served me and my family well.

- Right.

- And as you know in banking, there's so many different things you can do.

- Absolutely.

- It's not just lending, it's not just taking deposits.

- Mm-hmm.

- It's IT, data management.

There's so many things - Mm-hmm.

- you can do.

So, that's something that we're very focused on.

- So, interestingly, we've got all these different types of industries coming into South Carolina, which is really exciting.

But with this comes the need for new skills, right?

- Right.

- Yeah.

- So, in a place like Orangeburg where you are really trying to grow employment and employers, - Yes.

- how do you get these people skilled?

We do have one of the lowest labor force participation rates in the country.

How do we get that up?

How do we get people skilled for these jobs?

- That's the $64,000 question.

(Laura laughing) - Yeah.

- I've been trying to figure that out.

- That be good.

- So, yes, we do have OC Tech or Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College.

- Mm-hmm.

- on the technical side.

We do have both South Carolina State and Claflin University, universities that are in Orangeburg that offer advanced education.

The high schools are actually partnering with both universities and the technical college to offer something kind of a hybrid.

So, you could be a student in high school, but you could be taking college courses - Mm-hmm.

- at OC Tech.

- Mm-hmm.

- And by the time you finish, you're an academic sophomore.

- Right, right.

- In second semester, sophomore.

I've seen that happen.

But the idea of what types of jobs are going to come - Mm-hmm.

- to a place like Orangeburg, we're still trying to figure that out, because again, for the most part, Orangeburg is rural.

- Mm-hmm.

- Farming or agriculture is the number one, I guess, economy, well, the number one industry - Right.

- for Orangeburg.

And then, there's hospitality.

In fact, the state of South Carolina, agriculture, hospitality, - Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

- one and two.

Medicine.

And then, we have Boeing just opened up a facility in Orangeburg.

So, I think we're focusing, and at least the high schools are on STEM.

The more we do that on the math and the engineering side, it's gonna open up opportunities for folks all over the world, not just the country, to see Orangeburg as a place that they can establish a facility and find employees.

We currently have about 83,000 people, men, women, and children total that live in Orangeburg.

And so, we're not ready to have a lot of industry yet, - Right.

- 'cause we will be overrun or you're just pulling from one to add to another.

So, we're working on the housing issue, making sure that we have places for people to come to Orangeburg if they want to live and work and work for a new manufacturing plant or just live in Orangeburg and use the internet, because they're able to work from home.

But again, in the labor market, you're gonna have folks who are unskilled.

- Right.

- You're gonna have skilled, and then you're gonna have those who use their intellectual gifts for employment.

And I think where we are right now, we need to get more skilled labor.

- Right.

- And we need to, and this is a focus that I have with the schools, we need to promote work as the best thing you can do.

It's good.

It's the natural evolution to becoming an adult.

- I think that is great.

And I think we're gonna transition to our special guest - Okay.

(chuckles) - and bring him in.

But that's gonna fit really well into talking about agriculture, I think in a agricultural-heavy county.

- Yes.

- So, I wanna go over some shows that you can look forward to in the coming weeks.

First of all, there'll be a special encore presentation with Machelle Baker Sanders from the Department of Commerce.

And also we put together a great AI panel.

We hear about AI a lot in the news these days.

And so, we'll hear about how AI is impacting those experts industries.

And we now welcome Chalmers Carr, Jr.

Sorry, Chalmers Carr III, founder, president and CEO of Titan Farms, located in Ridge Spring, South Carolina.

Titan Farms, over 6,000 acres, are home to the largest peach crop on the East Coast.

Chalmers, thanks so much for joining us.

- Thank you, Laura.

Appreciate having me here.

- So, I'm gonna jump right in and ask you a question about this year's peach crop.

So, you're still in harvest, getting towards the end of harvest.

- Still in harvest.

We got about three weeks left to go.

- Okay.

So, how was the crop this year?

And I'm specifically curious about all the weather events we had this year, what role that played.

- So, first thing you have to do is get through the winter.

And we did not have a freeze this year.

So, we were blessed with a big crop.

Probably one of the biggest estates seen in several years.

That's coming off of last year, we lost 80% of the state's crop in one night.

- Wow, wow.

- Wow.

- So, Mother Nature plays a lot into that.

- Goodness.

- But this year, we got through the spring without freeze, and so early on, we had ample rainfall and everything.

Then, it got really dry as you know.

- Mm-hmm.

- And then, all of a sudden, the rain started back.

- Yes.

- And rains with peaches are not necessarily the best thing.

- Mm.

- So, Debby that just came across the state.

- Mm-hmm.

- Luckily, we're on the edge of it, but still four and a half inches of rain and harvest does some things we don't really like to do to the fruit quality and stuff.

But other than that, nothing to complain about.

Peaches have ate really well, so they've sold very well.

And I think everybody in the state's been very pleased.

- Really interesting.

So, I'm curious about this extreme weather, which we seem to be experiencing more often now.

Are you making any permanent changes because of that?

Are you adjusting anything about your production?

- Oh, definitely.

- You are.

- Yes.

- So, what are you doing?

- Well, one of the first things is some of the same varieties we've been growing for 20 to 30 years, we're now finding a ripening seven days earlier.

- Huh.

- The other thing we're also realizing is our winters are getting milder.

And so, peaches have to have a certain amount of dormancy to produce.

And that's hours below 45 degrees.

Some varieties are 600, but some varieties are 1,000 hours.

We're no longer getting the 1,000 hours of chill during the wintertime anymore.

So, we're having to adjust our varieties.

We're also looking at different areas in the state where we can now grow peaches.

- Hmm.

- In fact, we're back in Orangeburg growing an orangery.

- Oh, interesting.

Okay.

That's cool.

- That's used to grow (James laughing) 20 and 30 years ago - Huh.

- and we're back down there just 'cause we're having to notice these weather pattern changes.

- [Laura] Really, really interesting.

Peter, do you have a question?

- I do.

And I wanna start out with just bless you for what you do.

Farmers are so important to what we do, and it's hard.

And I've studied your company and it's fascinating.

Technology.

You're quite an innovator.

And so, plastic culture, Trimble GPS, weather stations, and all the data that goes around with that.

How are these innovations affecting your yields and as a result, your profitability?

- So, yields, I'd say, you're getting a minor effect in yields, but what you are doing is becoming much more sustainable company.

So, with using technology, we're able to reduce our inputs, using more wisely.

- Yeah.

- In some ways, it's a cost saving.

Some ways, you do get a production increase.

But the biggest part of it is just embracing technology because anything that you can gain from it can make you a smarter operator, make you a better operator.

And really on the sustainability side, like water usage, we've cut our water usage by 50% just in the last 10 years - Hmm.

- by adapting to different types of technology.

Whether it's a sprinkler that we apply with or a soil moisture monitor that tells us how much moisture's in the ground and whether we need to water or not.

So, there's a lot of great technology out there.

We just got our very first drone that actually can drive and fly the fields, spray the fields.

And also, we'll be able to start doing predictions of what our crop's gonna be like.

- Wow.

- So, we're really excited about that as well.

- Wow.

- [Laura] That is really exciting.

- It's great.

- It's amazing.

So, I have a question about land in South Carolina.

There is so much growth and we've been talking about all this growth that's coming and that's great, but that puts pressure on farmland - It does.

- and I know South Carolina has a lot of farmland that's at risk for development.

And so, I'm curious your views on that and if you think South Carolina's doing enough to protect the farmland.

- So, I really never worried about it until about five years ago.

We live in Edgefield County, not far from North Augusta, and then Lexington.

- Mm-hmm.

- And we've got Lexington coming this way and we've got North Augusta - Yes.

- coming this way.

I never thought I'd see a housing development within 10 miles of my farm, and there is one now.

So, it's coming.

- Mm.

- That does make it challenging, because again, - Mm-hmm.

- without the land, we can't produce.

And so, land values are going up.

It's harder to buy land, it's harder to be in business when you can't have land.

So, there are the challenges, but agriculture's gonna adapt.

It always has adapt.

- [Laura] Hmm.

- We try to do more with less all the time and we'll just keep on working on it.

But it is, I would say it is a threat to our industry from we can't grow peaches anywhere.

There's a reason why peaches are grown in the ridge area of South Carolina.

You just can't go plant 'em anywhere and they produce.

- Mm.

- And so, when those lands start getting away, we're gonna lose the state's biggest crop.

- Really, really - Food crop.

- interesting stuff.

Yeah, yeah.

So, James, do you have a question for- - I do.

You were talking earlier about technology, - Mm-hmm.

- but I wanna talk about the traditional part, (Chalmers chuckles) your workers.

- Yep.

- So, something I looked into was the H-2A federal law.

That's for six months- - 9 months, or actually, 10 months.

They can stay consecutively at one location for 10 months.

- And so, how do you think, do you see that there needs to be some adjustments there or immigration reform especially for what you do?

- Absolutely.

So, to let you all know, I've been in the H-2A program for 26 years.

The day that I took over the farm in 1999, I went to the H-2A guestworker program, which is a legal way for us to bring in immigrant workers - Right.

- to come in for a certain period of time, and then go back home to Mexico.

I have a 96% return rate.

This year, I'll employ 913.

We have to house them and we have to transport them.

- [James] Right.

- So, we have to provide all those services to 'em.

But the reason why we use the program is unfortunately, they are not domestic US workers that are willing to do these types of jobs.

- Mm-hmm.

- Right.

- And we had to embrace that.

So, we wanted to be legal.

Now, the problem is we all have to diversify.

I have a year-round operation in my processing, which I cannot use these workers in because I'm year-round.

So, it does need to be changed.

I've been working on immigration reform for 20 years.

Testified before Congress, testified before the Senate last year in DC.

And it's all about one, we need to make it for year-round agriculture, so we don't exclude industries.

Diversified farming like dairy farms right now cannot use it, 'cause they're year-round.

(James clears throat) - Mm.

- And if you think about dairy farming 365 days a year, milk it at midnight, it is hard to find people - Right.

- that wanna do these jobs.

- Bowman, South Carolina and Orangeburg, - Yes.

(laughs) - the largest dairy farm.

- And so, when I talk about immigration reform, it's gonna be in terms of the guestworker program - Yes.

- that we need to look at how we can expand it to year-round.

Right now also, we've been faced with some spiraling wage increases, because of a failed wage methodology.

- Yep.

- So, in this year, in South Carolina, our AEWR, which is adverse effect wage rate that we must pay is 14.68, plus free housing and free transportation.

- Mm.

- That has gone up 22% federally mandated in two years.

There's not another federal program that's gone up 22% in five years, and we've had a 22% increase.

So, where this affects consumers is, is when they talk about food prices going up.

- Right.

Yes.

- Well, this is what food production, - Yes.

- fruits and vegetables is generally done by H-2A migrant workers.

There's over 360,000 in this country performing these jobs.

But when we're artificially ratcheting up those wage rates, guess what?

It's gotta pass along to the consumer.

- Absolutely.

- So, we're using that as an argument to let our legislators know that when their constituents are calling and saying, hey, our food prices are going up, they need to look at this is part of the problem.

- [James] Can I ask follow up on this?

- Yeah, go, go ahead, go ahead.

- Are you getting the support you need from our both state legislators and on the federal side?

- Well, state can't really get involved in this.

This is a federal situation.

- Okay.

- But yes, Congressman Wilson led a bill in the past Congress, so did, up in Rock Hill, excuse me.

- [Laura] Ralph Norman.

- Ralph Norman did a bill (James laughing) for us as well.

And then, Tim Scott has been, Senator Scott has been - Yeah.

- very supportive and of course, Lindsey has been a champion of the program, - Yeah.

- and everything.

So, we've got the support.

It's the problem of combining it with immigration reform.

- Right.

- So, it's an ag labor situation.

- Right.

- Right.

- But when we stock immigration, now we bring in the southern border, we bring in everything else, - Mm-hmm.

- and then it gets too watered out.

So, hopefully this coming year, we're gonna be able to focus in on...

It's a growing problem for everybody in agriculture.

So, we see to be getting more traction with it just being an agriculture issue.

And if we can get the legislatures to divide it from the other, then yes, we can probably get something done.

- The way you can just rattle off all these statistics about it - Yeah.

- tells me how important this is in the production of your goods.

This is- - We will not be in business.

And there's so many people - Yes.

- in South Carolina that would not be in business - Yes.

- without this program.

All the commercial peaches in South Carolina are harvested by H-2A workers.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- [Laura] Really, really, that's incredible.

Do you have a question, Peter?

- I do.

And according to the USDA, the peach crop nationally has been declining - It has been.

- for the past two decades.

- It has been.

- And so, California, which is the largest peach producer, and then followed closely by South Carolina, then Georgia and New Jersey and all the other states.

How has your production, your yield tracked with that and what's behind that?

I know we mentioned weather in certain varieties, but what's really driving that?

- Well, let's see.

You're right.

California is number one with about 56% of the nation's peaches being produced there.

Their acreage is down almost 50% in the last two decades.

- Wow.

- Now their product production is not up, but it's up higher than that acreage, if you measured the acreage 20 years ago.

So, they are more productive on the lands they have.

Their situation is simply this.

They've got water challenges, - Mm-hmm.

- they have labor challenges, and they got regulatory challenges.

And so, peaches are not necessarily, when you look at Cuties and almond crops and stuff like nut crops, - Yeah.

- they can be a lot more valuable.

- Mm.

- So, they're alternative choices.

- Okay.

- So, most of the farmers out there have diversified, but there's eight really large operations in California that still farm.

Then, you come to the southeast and South Carolina's been about 15,000 acres during this whole time.

But yet I've went from 1,500 acres to 5,000 so, or 6,000.

So, even though we've maintained, other people have gotten out.

- Mm-hmm.

- And so, that's what you're seeing.

In Georgia, you've got three producers left, but I gotta get this plug in.

We always say that Titan Farms produces more peaches in the whole state of Georgia.

So, just gotta (group laughing) understand that.

- Get it in there, get it in there.

- But we're all in the same business and Georgia's a good friend of mine, and all the growers down there.

And it's this excitement of growing the crop and producing the crop.

So, yes, consumption has gone down.

It's not because people fell out of love with peaches, but there's also a whole lot more items in the grocery store for people to choose from.

- [Laura] Right.

- And as these younger generations are coming along, they like a lot of variety and choice.

- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

- So, it's a matter of, I don't think it's because people are not wanting peaches anymore.

They just wanna buy other things too, so.

- Yeah.

- So, while we still have a little bit of time, I wanna make sure to talk about agritourism a bit, because you guys are opening.

- Mm-hmm.

We are.

- Sara, yes.

Sara's Farms Adventures this fall, right?

- Yes.

- And it looks amazing.

- Thank you.

- And I'm curious, after all these years, what made you get into agritourism?

- Great conversation.

I was smart enough to have good advisors along away.

So, I started strategic retreats from my company 15 years ago.

And in '22, we had our last one and it sets our five-year roadmap.

Well, my team and this is when I have to sit quiet and let my team bring everything forward (Laura laughing) to what they think we wanna do with the company.

And agritourism got on the wall, and so it was one of the three that survived and we went all through it, and it took us two years to implement the plan.

But yes, we opened September the 19th, Sara's Farm Adventure, and 10-acre corn maze, pumpkin patch, lighted walking trail with a fall theme and then a Christmas theme.

And I'm really excited - Wow.

- about this.

- Yeah, I saw it.

- That's good.

- And I put it on my calendar for October, so my family (Chalmers laughing) will be there for sure.

- Mm-hmm.

- Very good.

- So, we just have about a minute left, but I wanted to ask you about your recent beginning to export peaches to Mexico after many, many years.

- Yes.

- What changed in that relationship and what allowed that to happen?

- So, very good question.

First of all, the technology of post-harvest treatment.

So, we have to treat the fruit to go to Mexico.

- Mm-hmm.

- And finally during COVID, there was an irradiation facility built on the border of Texas with Mexico.

- Mm.

- Second of all, the decline in California has opened up a market, 'cause they pretty much dominated that market.

So, we were able to go out and partner with Reveam in McAllen, Texas as our partner to treat the fruit to go down there.

And believe it or not, we've sold over 55 tractor trailer loads of fruit.

And our fruit in Mexico City is bringing more money than it is here in the US.

- Wow.

What opportunity.

- And that's something that nobody will realize.

- Wow.

That's fantastic.

- Wow.

- Well, this time just flew by.

I could talk about peaches - Yeah.

- for another hour.

- I can too.

- Thank you all so much for your time today.

Really great to learn more about your industry and join us next time on "Carolina Business Review".

(upbeat music) - [Presenter] Gratefully acknowledging support by Martin Marietta, BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina, Truliant Federal Credit Union, Sonoco, Colonial Life, High Point University, and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

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