Overview – Sule Nuts

1) During the peanut harvest season, Sule Nuts receives loads of so called ‘green’ peanuts .
2) The truck with their loads ae weighed and records kept by the issuance of scale tickets
3) A moisture sample is taken
4) Another sample another sample of peanuts would be drawn, weighed and shelled so that the
kernels could be classified into four size categories (large, regular, medium and small).
5) Farmer gets paid #20 per kilo and it is dependent on the kernel weight & size
6) Some times, immediate transportation could not be arranged, and the graded peanuts would
have to be stored in Sule Nuts’ warehouse, which had room for 5,500 tons

Sule Nuts owned a number of dryers of various sizes: 38 six-ton capacity dryers, 10 eleven-ton capacity
dryers and 14 fourteen-ton capacity dryers.

Sule Nuts did not have any storage for wet green peanuts; they were dumped directly from the farmer
trucks to the dryers. If dryer space was not available, trucks had no recourse but to wait until it became
available.

How long a load of peanuts would have to remain in a dryer depended on its moisture content. Peanuts
with a moisture content of 10 to 15 percent could be dried in about 12 hours, but peanuts with a
moisture content of 15 to 25 percent could take anywhere from 24 to 36 hours to dry. Sule Nuts did not
have any storage for wet green peanuts; they were dumped directly from the farmer trucks to the
dryers. If dryer space was not available, trucks had no recourse but to wait until it became available.

A typical day’s delivery would be about 120 tons; roughly half would have moisture content between 10
and 15 percent and half between 15 and 25 percent.

The drying operation was critical because harvested peanuts that were wet began growing a fungus
about 12 hours after harvesting. To avoid spoilage, it was essential that drying start within 12 hours after
harvesting. A day’s harvesting began in the morning and continued to dusk. Deliveries to Sule Nuts
begun about noon and lasted till 10 p.m. in a more or less steady stream.