The peanut industry wants to work with local growers to re-establish itself in the Northern Territory.
Peanut Company of Australia CEO, John Howard, said the industry is looking to expand in Queensland and the Northern Territory to help keep up with local demand, ABC Rural reports.
Howard said the company would like to work with local growers to re-establish the peanut industry in the Northern Territory’s Katherine.
"I don't know that we would be reinvesting [there] in our own right, as far as owning country and farming," he said.
"Our focus is investing in the market and creating a demand for Australian peanuts, that we work with growers to actually grow for us.
"Part of that investment is working with research facilities, to make sure that we're identifying the varieties that are appropriate for different geographies, and improving the chances of success for those growers that are going to work with us.
"It has been shown that peanuts can work in that environment, and we want to keep making sure that this option is put in front of growers, with the aim of potentially contracting and working with them down the track.
"It doesn't have to be massive. We would like to see 1,000 hectares in the first instance. That would work in very well with us."
In 2007, the Peanut Company of Australia invested millions of dollars to establish a commercial peanut crop at Taylor's Park, just outside Katherine, but abandoned the plan and sold the 11,700 hectare property sold to a sandalwood producer in 2012.
Howard says while its business model was ultimately unviable, the company proved peanuts could be successfully grown in the Top End.
"The issue we had with our experience in the Territory was the business model and how we went about it, not whether peanuts could be grown there or not," he said.
"One of the great outcomes of what we went through was essentially a big research and development operation, which did identify that peanuts could be grown successfully in the Territory.
"However, given the harshness of the environment, you need to be able to minimise the impacts of nature. Therefore, you need to put in a cropping system that supports it.
"Where you do that, we found that peanuts are able to stack up as a commercial enterprise."