The European Union has long been a major buyer of peanuts from the United States, but we’ve got a problem right now with the testing.
Despite our efforts, the data shows that the percentage of loads that have been rejected by the EU ports that fail to meet the aflatoxin requirements has decreased. That means the peanuts are cleaner from the U.S. The U.S. peanuts going into the EU are still sampled right, they say, at 20% rate. Major U.S. competitor peanuts coming in from other countries such as Brazil and China compete with the U.S. on those deliveries.
They’re only being checked on 10% of their product. This disparity has placed the U.S. peanut at a significant disadvantage in the European market, and right now the European market is the one that’s picking up so far wanting to buy more peanuts. We have made a special request from the U.S. Peanut Federation that the U.S. peanuts be inspected at the same lower rate, one that is comparable to that of other export competitors, with the goal of retaining our pre-export certification, which we had before this started.
The whole level is finally a playing field that is level for all peanuts coming into the European Union.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.