The Story

Coastal Growers, LLC is a 475,000 square foot peanut shelling plant in Atmore, Alabama. The cooperative is owned by approximately 100 family farmers and will shell, store, and market peanuts to end users and will allow the local peanut farmers to capture substantial added processing value in their peanut crop by vertically integrating their operations, returning more revenue and profits to the farmers and the rural community. Currently, 85-90% of peanuts are processed by large corporate shelling plants that pay farmers a lower stock price than the current market shelled price. This plant increases farmers’ profits by 30-35% per ton and will source peanuts within 200 miles of the Atmore facility in MS, AL, GA and FL. The plant will shell 200,000 tons of peanuts at full capacity and have the initial capacity to store 100,000 tons, with the capability to expand storage to 200,000 tons.

The Financing

• Total Project Cost: $87 million
• MuniStrategies Allocation: $5 million

The Impacts

• Economic: The project catalyzes a substantial number of indirect jobs with 1,200 to 1,500 truckloads monthly coming into the facility. New infrastructure, such as a new rail switch and transload facility, will attract and service several nearby businesses.
• Jobs: The Project is creating 130 new jobs, 114 of which are accessible to low to moderate income residents of the community and require only a high school education. The jobs have an average wage of $17.22 an hour, which is 162% of the single adult living wage in Escambia County of $10.60 an hour. All employees are offered health, dental and vision insurance at the time of hire, a 401K retirement, short/long term disability insurance and vacation and sick leave. The 95 construction jobs have wages of $21.00 an hour.
• Community: The City of Atmore through its Industrial Development Board provided the project an abatement of non-educational ad-valorem taxes for ten years, as well as an initial abatement on construction-related non-educational sales and use taxes on construction materials and equipment. The city provided 75 acres of property for site construction and space for a rail spur to service the facility as well as other projects in the area.
• Workforce Development:The Company has committed to $350,000 of critical workforce training. AIDT, a state agency established to recruit and train a skilled workforce, helped develop an in-house training program. It selected the project based on its capacity and ability to provide further economic impact that fits with the overall regional development strategy.

In the News

New Markets Tax Credit funding for $87 Million Coastal Growers Peanut Shelling Plant in Atmore

Coastal Growers Plans $87 Million Plant

Construction begins on Coastal Growers Plant – Gov. Kay Ivey attends Groundbreaking

Coastal Growers Shelling Facility in Atmore