By Stephanie Schupska
University of
Georgia
The United States may only produce 5 percent of the world’s
peanuts, but they win the international taste test hands
down.
A panel of 300 European consumers chose U.S.-grown peanuts over
peanuts from Argentina and China, according to a United States
Department of Agriculture study.
“The study is interesting because we’ve always heard that
within the U.S. and across the world, consumers prefer the
taste of U.S. peanuts, particularly the peanut produced in the
Southeast,” said John Beasley, a peanut agronomist with the
University of Georgia Extension Service. “We pride ourselves on
taste in the South.”
European tasters from London, Berlin and Amsterdam identified
about 70 percent of the Chinese samples and 40 percent of
Argentine samples as problematic, said Timothy H. Sanders, who
led the European peanut consumer research study.
Zero U.S. lots posed problems.
In a similar blind taste test conducted in the U.S., “hands
down, testers preferred U.S. peanuts,” Sanders said.
The tasting part of the European test was finished in 2004, and
the study’s findings were released in August 2005. A future
taste test trip to Europe may be in the works, said Sanders, a
USDA Agricultural Research Service leader based in Raleigh,
N.C.
“The reason we’re presenting this data in Europe is to assure
international buyers that although U.S. peanuts come at a
premium price, they also come as a premium product,” he said.
U.S. growers produced about 2.05 million tons of peanuts during
the 2003-2004 marketing year. Of those, 258,000 tons were
exported.
This year, U.S. peanut farmers are expected to produce a record
2.6 million tons, about 900,000 tons more than last year. The
U.S. will export about 262,000 tons, said Nathan Smith, a UGA
Extension Service peanut economist.
Southeastern peanuts are so good because of a long growing
season and good soil, Beasley said. “And producers are
dedicated to a high-quality product.”
But the key to excellent peanut flavor is a timely harvest.
Farmers must monitor peanut maturity carefully in each field.
“Plant on a timely basis, harvest on a timely basis,” Beasley
said, “and you’re going to have a good, flavorful peanut.”
But if U.S. growers become slack, “we could quickly lose our
reputation,” he said.
Southern peanut farmers have to deal with many diseases and
pests, but they also have longer windows to plant and harvest
their crops.
Argentina farmers, for instance, get cool weather quickly in
the fall.
“It doesn’t take many nights of temperatures in the mid-to-
lower 50s to shut the maturity process down,” Beasley said.
The effects of weather can show all the way to grocery store
shelves. Drought conditions and cool fall weather especially
affected Georgia’s 1986 peanut crop.
“We had a lot of peanuts dug before they were physiologically
mature,” Beasley said. “We had more complaints about peanut
flavor that year than any other. The peanuts had a big enough
size, but when they were roasted, they gave off a bitter
taste.”
This year, some Southern peanut growers are facing fast-
approaching cooler weather with crops that may not be ready for
harvest.
Cool spring weather and rain forced some farmers to plant
later, into June. This pushes optimal harvest dates into
November. Because it reduces the chance of the crop getting the
deadly tomato spotted wilt virus, Georgia peanut farmers
usually plant in May.
(Stephanie Schupska is a news editor with the University of
Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.)
