Premium Peanut, a based out of Douglas, Ga., received $10 million of tax credit financing to build a new shelling facility in Santee. 

New Market Tax Credit granted the finances to CEI Capital Management LLC, the owner of Premium Peanut, according to a news release from Premium Peanut.  

“This financing supports a project that allows our company to continue to build on our grower-owned model for producers in both South Carolina and Georgia, expanding our capacity and efficiency, while creating quality jobs in Santee,” Clay Garnto, president and CEO of Premium Peanut, said in the release. “We are excited for the future of our company and are looking forward to beginning the next phase of construction of the new shelling facility.” 

The new facility for the 10-year-old shelling company will create about 62 new full-time jobs and aimed to pay “more than the MIT living wage threshold for one adult with no children in the region,” according to the release. Employees will also have access to overtime pay and “profit-sharing/annual bonuses” based performance.  

“Premium Peanut presents that opportunity for folks to be able to really stay and live and raise their families in Orangeburg County,” Walt Tobin, president of Orangeburg-Calhoun Technical College, said. 

Since 2014, Premium Peanut has been a grower-owned peanut shelling company, shelling since 2016 and gradually expanded to produce peanut oil, peanut meal, peanut hulls and peanut seed, the release said.  

The peanut company has over 450 grower-owners spread across Georgia and South Carolina, paying over $98 million to its grower-owner dividends, according to the release.  

“Premium Peanut is creating and maintaining good jobs in this rural region,” Traci Vaine, CCML CEO, said. “The company has been able to replicate its model to invest in another community, establish partnerships, and ultimately contribute to strengthening the local economy.” 

Based in Maine, CCML focuses on investing in rural manufacturing, Premium Peanut being its second investment, the release said. CCML has placed more than $1.02 billion in 103 different projects across the U.S.  

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