Ken Corbett has continued what his father, Louis Corbett, and his uncle, Mack Corbett, started 41 years ago: the production of bell peppers. In fact, Louis and Mack Corbett were the first farmers to grow bell pepper and eggplant for commercial production in the Lake Park, GA, area.

According to Ken, some of the biggest changes he’s noticed in the industry since the Corbett brothers started the operation in 1972 are that there are fewer farms — a lot fewer farms. In the ‘70s there were about 75 farmers in South Georgia and now there are about 10, he says.

In spite of the dwindling number of operations, the upside is that technology has grown by leaps and bounds over the years. “When my father first started, it was with a one-row tractor and a plow toting sprinklers for irrigation,” recalls Ken. “Today we have automatic irrigation systems with precision placement of fertilizer and chemicals, and the tractors today drive themselves with GPS.”

Some of that technological advancement spilled over to the packing house. The Corbetts had a 60,000-square-foot state-of-the-art packing facility constructed about two years ago to not only stay on top of the Food Safety Modernization Act but to be ahead of the law. To ensure accuracy and quality, they are using the latest grading and sizing equipment.

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