Summerdale Peanut Co. is a buyer of farmers' peanuts in southwest Alabama, primarily in the fertile Baldwin County, Alabama region.  The company buys thousands of tons of peanuts in the fall of each year.  These peanuts are mainly used for the production of peanut butter by national brands.  It works with forty farmers located in Baldwin County, Alabama, providing a market for their peanut crop.
The company was formed in 2002 and soon after bought out the assets of a company that had been in the Baldwin County area contracting and buying peanuts for four previous years. 
Joe Parker has managed the operations of this company since its beginning, having over 15 years of experience in the peanut industry.  He also led the previous company’s operations in the area. 

Activities at the company come alive in the Fall of each year during the critical harvest season which takes place between September 10th and November 15th.  At that time, the peanuts are dug and combined by the farmers in the area and then delivered to the business for marketing.  The peanut marketing process involves cleaning and drying the peanuts, if necessary, before the peanuts are graded by US Department of Agriculture supervised inspectors.  The inspectors perform various tests on a sample from each load of peanut delivered to determine their quality and value.  Once the value is determined, the peanuts are either purchased outright or put in the USDA loan.  Either way, the peanuts are then stored in a huge warehouse which acts as a metal shed over a huge mountain of peanuts.  The warehouse at Summerdale Peanut stores 10,000 tons of peanuts!  Once the peanuts are set to be shelled, a “bail out” process begins whereby the peanuts are transferred via semi trucks to the shelling plant located in South Georgia where they are shelled, sized sorted and packaged for the next step in the process which is the actual roasting of the shelled goods.  Once roasted and peanut butter is produced, then the Summerdale born peanut butter arrives at supermarkets and retail outlets throughout the country.

Our location in Summerdale, Alabama, has the ability to grade, clean, dry and store peanuts.  It is the farmers’ first market for the product.  In addition, farmers purchase peanut seed from our location.

Summerdale Peanut also wholesales and retails peanut products.