New Zealand-made peanut butter could soon be Aotearoa-grown too.
A trial is underway in Te Tai Tokerau/Northland to test the commercial viability of growing peanuts there, after a small-scale trial proved successful - and tasty.
"So, we found that, yes, we can grow peanuts in New Zealand - so we've decided to take that one step further - can we grow these at commercial scale," said Greg Hall, project manager at Northland Inc.
Six 1ha 'trial plots' have been planted at sites across Kaipara and Muriwhenua/Far North, including one near Tunatahi/Dargaville.
It's a long way from where they're usually grown in hot, dry climates. The peanuts have been imported from the US and are covered in a red-coloured fungicide to protect them from mildew while they grow. "The first year we imported eight cultivars from Agra, India, all high-oleic [oils] and one Spanish variety. This year we've imported three varieties from Georgia, USA," Hall told Newshub.
It follows a small-scale Te Tai Tokerau/Northland peanut trial several years ago, which was founded and backed by New Zealand's very own Pic's Peanut Butter.
The verdict? It was a success.
"Pic's did take some down to Peanut Butter World, where his staff manually shelled them by hand over a few weeks and made some peanut butter out of it, and they said it was pretty damn good," said Hall.
Wednesday's planting has been a long time coming, this second phase of the trial was meant to happen last season.
They got peanuts in the ground but the bad weather meant the crops failed.
Luke Posthuma usually grows kūmara on his farm, but he lent a paddock to the peanut cause.
The planting is being funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries, Northland Inc and Pic's.
"They called up about eight weeks ago asking if we were interested in doing a hectare this year, so we found a block," Posthuma told Newshub.
"It's good to see what other crops are available out there."
Peanuts take about 130 days to grow so they should be harvested in March.
Then, they'll crunch the numbers to find out if Te Tai Tokerau/Northland is nutty enough to grow its own.
