News Briefs

sion on Friday will feature “Strengths in Precision Agriculture” with Auburn University’s Steve Li, the University of Florida’s Ian Small and the University of Georgia’s Simer Virk as speakers in this session.

Highlighting the prayer breakfast will be Kermit George, who lost his arm but survived an alligator attack. Social media influencer and ag advocate Michelle Miller, known as Farm Babe, will be the featured speaker at Friday’s luncheon.

Registration is $195 for growers. For more information and a complete schedule of events, go to www.southernpeanutfarmers.org.

NPB Releases 2023 Budget

For fiscal year 2023, the National Peanut Board will spend an estimated $12 million for promotions and research. Including savings, interest and late revenue from the prior year, the total available is more than $13 million.

In a breakdown of the budget, domestic promotions and market development account for $8.4 million, with export promotions and market development receiving $460,000. Production research is allotted $2.5 million, with grower and intra-industry communications set at $654,000.

International Peanut Forum Talks Sustainability

The global peanut industry has experienced significant changes in recent years with social, environmental and health policies all playing a key role and being drivers of growth in the sector. This and more were discussed during the International Peanut Forum in Lisbon, Portugal, in April.

The overall sentiment is that peanuts are essential in the global food supply chain for key markets such as China, India and the United States, where the legume is used as a snack, an oil source or an affordable plant-based protein. In addition, they are an exchange currency source for many suppliers such as Argentina, Brazil, India, Nigeria and

Alabama’s Top Peanut Counties

The USDA National Agricultural Statistic Service has published the 2022 estimated peanut production for Alabama. NASS has estimated that Alabama peanut growers produced 559 million pounds of peanuts in 2022. That makes Alabama second in the nation in peanut production, with Georgia ranking first. The U.S. produced 5.57 billion pounds of peanuts in 2022. Houston County is estimated as the top peanut-producing county with 106,960,000 pounds of peanuts produced, and Geneva County comes in next at 71,680,000 pounds of peanuts produced. The top five is rounded out by Baldwin County, Henry County and Escambia County, respectively.

Senegal. Additionally, peanuts are often part of a growing cycle to enrich soils with lower production costs than other nuts in countries such as Brazil, where farmers alternate peanuts with sugar cane.

Developing Future Export Strategy

The American Peanut Council Export Committee has prepared the 2024 Unified Export Strategy, which serves as the peanut industry’s application for funding under USDA’s Market Access and Foreign Market Development programs.

The export funding programs are part of the Farm Bill and available to U.S. ag commodity groups, including the APC. The UES identifies target markets with opportunities for export growth and lays out a plan for how to accomplish goals in each of the identified countries or regions.

The overall goal of the export program is to increase exports of U.S. peanuts, with specific goals set for each of the target markets. The export committee identified Canada, Mexico, the European Union, Japan, China, the United Kingdom and an area for projects that impact all markets described as “Global Issues.”

The 2024 UES will expand current activities and build knowledge on potential new markets. The 2024 application was completed in May.