Earlier this year, a group of peanut industry representatives including Bob Parker of the National Peanut Board and Don Koehler with the Georgia Peanut Commission visited China on a trade mission organized by the American Peanut Council.
Bob and Don gave an overview of the challenges and opportunities they found in the most populous country in the world during the very last session at the 2015 Southern Peanut Growers Conference. “We want to sell raw peanut to markets around the world, that’s our traditional business model,” said Parker. “But we realize with on-line commerce there’s some great opportunities for our manufacturers to sell more finished products to China.”
China is the number one peanut producing country in the world, but Koehler says it’s really not very efficient. “It’s more modern than just with the water buffalo anymore,” Don says. “But it’s still one row production in most of the areas and it’s older people doing it, the young people don’t want to work quite that hard.”
Listen to more of what Bob and Don learned on their visit to China in this interview:
Interview with Bob Parker, National Peanut Board, and Don Koehler, GA Peanut Commission (MP3)