Peanuts Positioned for a Bright Future

BY BOB PARKER President & CEO

In 2012, members of the National Peanut Board (NPB) chose me as their president and CEO. Working to represent the interests of America’s peanut farmers has been an honor and a highlight of my career. While this has been a life-changing experience, I recently announced my retirement at the end of 2023.

Though leaving behind a job and people that I love is difficult, retirement allows me to spend more time with my family and be closer to watch my grandchildren grow up.

As I close this chapter in my life, I feel good about where we are as an industry. We are as unified as I have seen it over my entire career. Though we have many industry organizations, our purpose and messaging is aligned, which effectively serves our stakeholders.

The last two years we have hit all-time per capita consumption levels of peanuts in the U.S. This has been a team effort by many hard-working people in our industry — grower and industry associations, shellers, manufacturers and allied segments. I am confident our efforts here at NPB played a part in this success.

In its early years, NPB members rightfully decided to address the peanut allergy issue. When I came on board, there was a team of knowledgable people in place dedicated to finding solutions. Unfortunately, peanut allergy is still a problem today, the single largest barrier to peanut consumption. However, we have made great progress. We now have early introduction of peanut to infants as a proven way to prevent peanut allergy. We are also supporting research that may one day provide a prevention for severe reaction and maybe an outright cure.

Production research is one of my passions. How can we help farmers produce higher yields at lower costs, to become more competitive? Working closely with peanut scientists has also been a gratifying experience. The norm for yields has gone from 3,000-pound national averages around ten years ago to 4,000 pounds today. Our support of research in partnership with state and industry associations has played a part in this progress and will pay off for years to come.

The peanut industry has been good to me these past 47 years. I will miss the wonderful people, but I can close out my career with the hope I have made a difference for our peanut farmers and their families.

Bob Parker, President & CEO