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SYLVESTER, GA --
Pecans have been a part of the Craft family through the generations for nearly 100 years.

“I’ve done this ever since I was a little bitty boy so this is just something that I enjoy doing. You got to love it,” says Scott Craft, co-owner of Georgia Pecan Company in Sylvester.

Georgia Pecan Company in Sylvester opened late November but celebrated their ribbon cutting in January. The business grows, bags and sells their own locally grown pecans to Southwest Georgia as well as eight foreign countries.

“It says that people are still willing to take a chance. If we support them they can stay open for 30 years. It’s up to us as a community to come in and support our businesses,” says Karen Rackley with the Sylvester-Worth County Chamber of Commerce. “I can't say enough how much a new business it means to us here in Sylvester-Worth County.”

Supporting the 15 workers at Georgia Pecan Company is Co-Owner Janice Craft’s goal, which is why they added pecan bagging to their workload.

“Our season ended several weeks ago with our pecans in our orchards so I went around to effectively keep my guys working and everyone having a job because we have 15 people working for us,” says Craft. “So we got some bagging contracts in and we’re bagging pecans right and left and sending them out the door.”

Along with growing and bagging their own Pecans, they sell their homegrown local products – including chocolate pecan treats, pecan brittle and homemade fudge – in their store as well as other locally grown products like Weeks honey.

“Everybody needs a help, seriously. To me the honey goes hand in hand with the pecans,” says Janice.

According to the Sylvester-Worth County Chamber of Commerce, it’s new, local businesses like Georgia Pecan Company going hand in hand with existing businesses that makes the city’s economy successful.

“We’ve had seven, eight new businesses open up just in the last two or three months but we have thriving existing businesses. So we're very blessed here and we want to see it continue and continue in an upward spiral,” says Rackley.

Janice says her recipe for success is simpler than that: Hard work.

“The family joke is that even if I won the lottery I’d rather work,” she says.

You can visit Georgia Pecan Company’s general store and farmer’s market at 303-B W. Franklin Street in Sylvester or contact them at (229) 777-7730.