By Clint Thompson
The Georgia Peanut Tour educated attendees this week about everything that is pertinent to the industry’s success every year.
The tour provided attendees an opportunity to witness peanut digging and harvesting up close, along with visiting peanut facilities across the South Georgia area.
Mark Abney, University of Georgia entomologist and Georgia Peanut Tour chairman, discussed the tour this year. He highlighted the tour’s purpose which is to enlighten those who manufacture peanuts.
“We do a lot of tours, and a lot of them are for people, mainly focused for people here in Georgia, for farmers, but this tour, we have farmers on the tour sometimes, but it’s really designed for the folks who manufacture peanut products; products where they use peanuts as an ingredient,” Abney said.
“They come from all over the country and all over the world sometimes, to see where peanuts are grown and how they’re grown. I think it’s really important for people who use this product that we produce, to understand who the people are who grow it and the amount of work it takes to make this crop.
“Everybody who’s got a business wants to buy their inputs as cheap as they can. People need to understand why $400 a ton peanuts don’t cut it. They need to be able to see what our equipment costs are, what land costs are and what irrigation costs are; the costs it takes to keep the weeds and diseases and insects out of this crop. They need to understand when they’re buying the highest quality peanuts in the world that are grown right here in Georgia, you need to be able to pay enough for the man or woman who grows them to make a living.”
The Georgia Peanut Tour is organized by the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, USDA-ARS National Peanut Laboratory, and the Georgia Peanut Commission.