“We were not devastated by the economic crunch or the salmonella scare. The export market was hurt some as consumers overseas cut discretionary spending.”
U.S. demand for peanut butter is surprisingly strong considering the double calamities that hit the market in 2008 and 2009.
“Peanut butter is the best buy in the super market,” said Tyron Spearman, Tifton, Ga., editor of the Peanut Farm Market News and incoming president of the American Peanut Council.
Spearman recently said the “salmonella scare is over with,” and peanut demand has bounced back from what could have been a long-term catastrophe.
“We had never had salmonella in peanuts before,” he said. “This was a once-in-a-lifetime situation.”
He recalled how a Georgia plant put salmonella tainted peanuts into the market where they were used in crackers and some other products. “It was never in peanut butter.”
But the public assumption was that tainted peanuts could have entered into peanut butter and other foods. “It took an industry campaign to turn it around,” Spearman said. “It worked!”
He said court cases against the company are pending.
That scare hit at a particularly bad time for the peanut industry. A burdensome supply of peanuts from a record 2008 crop had pushed farmer stock prices down and a declining economy threatened to further erode markets.
“But 2009 was a remarkable year,” Spearman said. “We were not devastated by the economic crunch or the salmonella scare. The export market was hurt some as consumers overseas cut discretionary spending.”
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