Georgia peanut farmers up to their necks in nuts

Business

Late last year, Georgia farmers' once-full peanut warehouses were emptied and shelling companies were on a hiring spree. But all that changed when the state's peanut pipeline to China was suddenly shut off.

Within a year, China went from being a major customer of Georgia's peanut farmers -- in part because of its growing middle class -- to a country that's all but stopped buying our state's groundpeas. That's a result of China suddenly changing its tariff policies.

As proof, take a look inside the peanut warehouse on Joe Boddiford Jr.'s farm in Sylvania, 200 miles east of Atlanta.

Holding 3,700 tons of peanuts, "This warehouse is basically packed completely full," says Boddiford, owner of Sylvania Peanut Co. "It'll take another five or six months" before the unsold mountain of peanuts is gone.

Georgia growers had expected to at least double exports this year, with China single-handedly boosting the state's peanut business. Instead, says an industry exec, "The Chinese bubble burst."

Boddiford, who also grows cotton and corn, checks his neighbor's peanut field. Farmers across a 70-county swath of Georgia's midsection have slashed their spring peanut plantings to about a third of last year's.

These early-stage peanut plants face an uncertain future. In March 2012, China bought 20 metric tons of U.S. peanuts. A year later, a whopping 771 metric tons.

Late last year, "We couldn't shell 'em fast enough," says Tyron Spearman, executive director of the Tifton-based Peanut Buying Points Association. "They wanted more ... but we just couldn't deliver."

Now, "We've got ships taking peanuts to China and they refused them," Spearman says. "They're sitting out there on the docks trying to find somebody else to buy them."

Boddiford, preparing to spray weed control on his 2,200-acre farm's corn field, likens China's appetite for peanuts to its affinity for Georgia's pecans. Twenty percent of U.S.-grown pecans are eaten by the Chinese -- and Georgia is the top producer.

As far as peanuts are concerned, Boddiford -- behind the wheel of his John Deere SprayMaster -- wonders about the once-promising Asian market: "Nobody knows what the Chinese will do."

When it comes to Georgia's $1.2 billion peanut industry, Boddiford thinks the Chinese market "may not be as big as we hoped for."

But, says Boddiford, a graduate of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, "I do think China will be a bigger and bigger player."

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Within a year, China went from being a major customer of Georgia's peanut farmers -- in part because of its growing middle class -- to a country that's all but stopped buying our state's groundpeas. That's a result of China suddenly changing its tariff policies.

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