- Valdosta and Lowndes County are experiencing economic growth, with new jobs coming in, including 350 positions at Walmart’s new dairy plant.
- Farmers are facing challenges from inflation and storm damage, with Hurricane Helene causing $3.2 Billion in agricultural losses.
- Watch the video to see how the outlook impacts local industries.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT
Local leaders say Valdosta and Lowndes County are in a strong position. More jobs, more growth—like Walmart's new dairy plant bringing 350 positions.
And across the state, the economy is expected to outpace national growth. But Christie Moore, the president of our Chamber of Commerce that doesn't mean everything's steady.
"The great news is overall their outlook was very positive, but any of these policies could possibly disrupt the supply chain for our local manufacturers."
Tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China, are still up in the air. And for manufacturers here, uncertainty over supply chain disruptions has been a big concern across the board.
"Without farming, you die."
For farmers like Steven Hendley from Fifth Day Farms,, inflation and last year's Hurricane Helene have already hit hard.
"The prices went up after COVID and the inflation just got crazy. It really hurt us. Hay went from $50 a roll to $80.00 a roll."
And it's not just rising costs—building materials have skyrocketed too.
"After the storm, I had to replace the roof on my barn. It was practically blown off and it was amazing to me the price of building materials to do the work."
Even with agriculture taking a $3.2 billion hit, the overall message? Confidence in growth. A growing economy comes with growing pains—but local leaders say Valdosta is still on the right track.
Georgia has been seeing a bit of a decline in inflation for most areas as well... except food, which is currently at 7.15%, according to our state economic index.
In Valdosta, I'm Malia Thomas, reporting for ABC27.
