Bega's 100 per cent Australian peanut butter continues despite processing plant closure

Australia Broadcast Center

10-07-2025

Bega Group says it will continue to produce 100 per cent Australian-grown peanut butter despite closing two processing plants in Queensland.
The company announced yesterday it will wind up facilities in Kingaroy in the South Burnett and Tolga in Far North Queensland over the next 18 months.
Chief executive Pete Findlay said the company would buy processed peanuts from another food manufacturer.
"There's another processor in the Kingaroy region, so we will look to transact with that processor," he said.
Mr Findlay said that when Bega Group purchased the Peanut Company of Australia in 2017, it was operating under "sustained financial pressure".
"It was facing a fairly rocky future. We thought that we might be able to turn the business around," he said.
But even after investing $15 million on plant improvements and lifting production from 8,000 tones to 25,000 tonnes, he said it never became profitable.
"It's meant that we've incurred tens of millions of dollars of losses over that time," he said.
Mr Findlay said the existing processor in Kingaroy had the capacity to produce the amount of product Bega needed to keep its 100 per cent Australian peanut butter on the shelves.
Mark Young is the third generation on his family farm in Kingaroy; his great-uncle and grandfather Ben and Harry Young were known as the fathers of the region's peanut industry.
Mr Young said it marked the end of an era.
"It's a 100-year-old iconic business. I don't believe it ever needed to close," he said.
"It had a brand label that was very well supported, had very, very loyal growers and it had very, very good people working for it.
Mr Young's daughter, Kristy, who also works on the family farm, said the closure was devastating.
"Generations before me have worked so hard to build this industry, and it feels like it's just been swept under the rug," she said.
Mr Findlay said this year's crop was still being cleaned and shelled, and processing would continue at the site until its closure in December 2026.
"We also need to give farmers a chance to think about what they want to do next season," he said.
About 130km north of Kingaroy, the harvest has just finished at Ben Rackemann's peanut farms in Coalstoun Lakes.
Most of his crop is sent to Kingaroy's other processor, Crumptons, and he expected peanuts to remain in his rotation next season.
"I have a fair bit of confidence with Crumptons," he said.
"I don't know about the entire industry, but I'm hoping that we will still have a certain amount of peanuts within that rotation."
His wife, Stephanie, said her family had always considered the peanut industry to be relatively stable, but now it was clouded in uncertainty.
"There have been some conversations over the past 12 months … it really changes how we are going to do things."
While Mr Rackemann was optimistic about his operations, he was worried about what Bega's closure could mean for consumers.
Last week, Coles recalled its home brand 1kg jars of smooth and crunchy imported peanut butter.
Traces of aflatoxin — a type of toxic mould — were detected in jars dated best before 05/02/2027 that had been sold online and in stores nationally.
"It's getting harder and harder to buy Australian peanut butter," Mr Rackemann said.
"They are definitely out there, so I would urge everyone to go and buy [Australian peanut butter]."
While the contaminated peanut butter had no connection to the Bega Group, Mr Findlay said there were stringent testing processes for all the food they produced.
"We spend a huge amount of money on appropriate lab testing … we take quality incredibly seriously," he said.
"It helps that we're producing the product here in Australia."
In Far North Queensland, peanuts have been part of the rotation for farmers on the Atherton Tablelands for more than 90 years.
Known for putting nitrogen back into the soil, peanuts are popular with sugarcane growers.
Claude Santucci from Mareeba said peanuts improved soil health, cane quality, and yield.
"[I'm] really disappointed and saddened to hear the news," he said.
"If we're going to lose a peanut industry on the Tablelands, that will have an impact on some of these cane growers."
Mr Santucci said corn and potato growers would also be affected, and it would not be easy to replace peanuts.
"Soybean is probably going to be the most important crop or notable crop to replace peanuts," he said.
"I'll certainly have to look at other options now, and it's not going to be very easy to do that either.
"Peanuts were really nice crops to be growing."