Small poultry farms will soon be able to process birds on-site.

It’s one of many changes in the works from State Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black.

Poultry farmers currently have to ship birds out of state for processing.

Under pending changes, farms could process up to 1,000 birds themselves.

Agriculture officials say they will announce more changes to help small farms be more competitive.

Commissioner Black says one of the goals is to improve business at farmers markets:

“There are many different attributes that products have in the marketplace now… Some are natural, some are organic, and some are conventional. My message is that we will make sure they’re all safe if they're produced in Georgia.”

Georgia’s agriculture industry is worth $57 billion.

Tags: black, Georgia agriculture, poultry, farmers markets, Gary Black, Poultry Processing, Georgia Poultry, Georgia Farmers Markets, Georgia Farms, Georgia Agriculture Commissioner