Governor Nathan Deal and Speaker of the House David Ralston will be in Douglas for the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony at Premium Peanut. Deal and Ralston are just two of the many elected officials who will attend the ceremony to be held at the plant on Barrington Road on Friday, April 22, at noon.
Premium Peanut began shelling peanuts in January of this year, just 11 months after the announcement came that over 200 farmers would create a co-op to build the facility to shell peanuts in Douglas.
Premium Peanut is owned by seven buying points and over 225 growers. According to CEO Karl Zimmer, the facility is the newest plant in the U.S. by 10+ years and is the largest peanut shelling facility in the world.
The plant represents close to $50 million in capital investment and will employ approximately 100 people.
Organization of the company was started in November 2014 by seven peanut buying points, which will warehouse peanuts for the growers at harvest and supply them to the shelling plant during the year.
The peanut is the official state crop for Georgia. Georgia is the number one producer of peanuts in the United States, producing 48% of the entire U.S. crop. About 70 counties in Georgia produce nearly 2 billion pounds of peanuts each year. The peanut industry contributes about 50,000 jobs in Georgia.
– Submitted