SANTEE – Calhoun County farmer Joe Haigler has great hopes for the state's first-of-its-kind peanut-shelling plant.
Ground was broken in November 2022 on the Premium Peanut plant in Santee.
“It will allow the farmer to take his raw product to the next level and be able to get some added revenue from his crop,” Haigler said of the plant.
“I have always wanted to see it happen and it has finally come to fruition,” he said.
Premium Peanut is building its shelling facility in the 1,324-acre South Carolina Gateway Logistics Park in Santee on property it has purchased from DP World Americas, a subsidiary of Dubai World.
Haigler, along with other local growers like Danny Mixon, helped develop the Palmetto Peanut buying point in Cameron in 2005.
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“We had to have a place to sell peanuts and we built a facility to do that,” Haigler said. “I never thought a shelling plant would come and we always dreamed about it.”
Haigler thinks the shelling plant will prompt more farmers to grow peanuts.
“It is a good crop. It benefits the other crops that you grow. It is a good rotation crop,” he said.
Premium Peanut is building its own facilities. It plans to invest $27.5 million in buildings and $36.8 million in equipment in Orangeburg County over the next five years.
The company plans to bring 130 new jobs to Orangeburg County.
The company's Santee campus will include a peanut seed treatment facility and the shelling facility. There’s a potential for future expansion.
“We are trying to make sure we do it right,” Premium Peanut Director of Sales and Industry Relations Rachel Santos said.
Premium Peanut President and CEO Karl Zimmer acknowledged the project has perhaps taken a little longer than originally anticipated.
“We are glad to be here and we are glad to see the progress,” he said. “We have made some progress, but now it is really going to accelerate. We are going to get moving on grading the land here, very quickly pouring the concrete and getting the buildings up.”
Premium Peanut was founded in 2014. The company began shelling peanuts in 2016 with about 140,000 tons in shelling capacity at its Douglas, Georgia facility.
The company has grown to a plant capacity of 300,000 tons, which is about 10% of the nation's peanut crop.
It has also operated an oil mill since 2018 in Georgia.
The company's customers include major snack, candy and peanut butter manufacturers domestically, as well as customers in more than 30 countries around the world.
“We are not just going to take what we have in Douglas and put it here,” Zimmer said. “We are very focused on innovation and very focused on figuring how we do things new, better and different.”
“That is what we are going to do here,” Zimmer said. “We are going to build a shelling plant that is not just the newest in the world, but the most advanced, the most technologically capable.”
Zimmer thanked the local community and growers for their support.
“Our mission really is to create value for our peanut farmers,” Zimmer said.
Premium Peanut is a grower-owned company with over 400 grower-owners in Georgia and South Carolina.
Zimmer said over 30,000 shares in the company have been sold to peanut growers in South Carolina.
“We work every day to create value for our growers and those growers are now South Carolinians and very, very proud of that,” he said.
As part of its arrival in Orangeburg County, Premium Peanut received a 30-year fee-in-lieu of taxes incentive.
It’s also been placed in a multicounty industrial park with Dorchester County. A multicounty industrial park is an incentive mechanism and is not a physical park. The company also will receive job development tax credits.
Premium Peanut Chairman Kent Fountain expressed his appreciation to South Carolina.
“You have opened your doors and you welcomed us,” Fountain said. “It has been a little longer than we had wanted but we promise you we are coming and we are here and we are going to make the best of it and build the best facility. It takes time.”
“We need more growers,” Fountain said. “More stockholders to make this facility as large as we can make it here in South Carolina.”
Santee Mayor Donnie Hilliard recalled about 18 years ago when he was the town administrator and the idea of an industrial park in Santee had just begun to blossom.
Town council members at that time went on a retreat to learn about long-term planning for the future.
“They agreed that we would program, prepare and market the town and here we are 18 years later,” Hilliard said. He thanked Premium Peanut for showing that planning works.
Hilliard said the current council will continue to create an environment that will draw industrial prospects into the area.
Orangeburg County Council Chairman Johnnie Wright prayed in thanksgiving for the groundbreaking and all those who have supported the effort. Wright also prayed for the future success of the company and for the continued relationship between the county and the company.
“We want to thank Premium Peanut for finally coming and putting the ring on the finger and saying they will marry Orangeburg County,” Wright said.
Orangeburg County Development Commission Executive Director Kenneth Middleton said, “There is a lot to do.”
“We remember when you shared your dream with us. One man's dream becomes the other folks’ hope, but eventually it becomes a family's reality,” he said.
S.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers said the state has been talking about a peanut-shelling station for over a decade but has been talking about the importance of adding value to crops for even longer.
“Here value will be added to peanuts in South Carolina,” Weathers said. “The cooperative model that Premium has is already paying dividends for our farmers.
“Cooperatives have had success in South Carolina but they have had challenges. This is one I am very glad to see that we can show as an example to other farmers around the state.”
South Carolina understands the importance of agriculture on all levels of government, Weathers said.
He said Premium Peanut will now be added to that economic measurement.
“What they are doing here will be a part of the agribusiness economic impact that we are so very pleased with, especially in rural South Carolina,” Weathers said. “It is agribusiness and agriculture that makes a difference in our rural counties like Orangeburg, Calhoun and Clarendon.”
Growers interested in learning more should contact Premium Peanut at 912-292-0291.
