Portales location of peanut grading station

Did you know the New Mexico Department of Agriculture has a peanut grading station located in Portales? Did you know this facility monitors the quality of peanuts grown in New Mexico and West Texas?

We all know New Mexico to be the nation’s leader in green chile production and No. 2 in pecans, but rarely is the state associated with milled peanut production.

However, according to the 2021 New Mexico Agricultural Statistic Bulletin, New Mexico ranks No. 11 in peanut production in the United States. The NMDA Peanut Grading Station is a hidden gem that highlights one of the most unexpected crops grown in West Texas and New Mexico.

This station has three full-time agricultural commodity graders that inspect peanuts. The purpose of these inspections is to check the peanuts to ensure they are suitable for human consumption. Peanut harvest season usually begins in September and ends in December. Peanuts are graded based on size and type. During the inspection process, inspectors look for defects and look for peanuts that may have been frozen or are rancid, moldy or decayed.

There are four different types of peanuts that are graded at the grading station: runners, Virginia, Spanish and Valencia. These peanuts arrive either in their shells or without their shells. During harvesting, this facility can expect to complete 15-20 inspections a day. After the peanuts pass inspection, they are released into processing to their final destination.

Some of the peanuts processed in the Portales area and graded at the grading station will go as far as Mexico, Canada and the European Union.

“Our station focuses on the size, quality and condition of all peanuts collected from New Mexico and West Texas,” said Alvaro Gomez, an NMDA agricultural commodity grader. “This station prides itself on providing quality assurance to all consumers of the peanuts processed.”

Although their main operations are at the station in Portales, the three agricultural commodity graders occasionally travel to the southern part of the state to assist in onion inspections during the summer. Additionally, two of the agricultural commodity graders housed at the Portales station also double as unrestricted inspectors/process auditors who are responsible for conducting United States Department of Agriculture market inspections, Good Agricultural Practices audits and Harmonized GAP+ audits throughout the state when needed.

The USDA audits provided by the process auditors help applicants meet food safety standards set by their customers and state and federal regulations.

“These audits are another example of quality assurance that our station provides,” Gomez said. “These audits are very extensive and are part of a verified program, which may lead to producers achieving higher sales.”

There are three peanut mills in the Portales area, including two shelled peanut operations and one that is both a shelled and in-shell milled facility. There are two buying-point facilities during the harvest season. In 2021-2022, the grading station inspected 94.4 million pounds of milled peanuts and is set to exceed that this year with 37 million pounds already inspected for 2022-2023.

The Peanut Grading Station also hires temporary employees – commonly known as agricultural commodity grader assistants – that help with the millions of pounds of peanuts coming through the station. They are hired on a seasonal basis to help with the influx of peanuts during harvest. Depending on industry demands, a temporary staffing agency will hire anywhere from five to 12 employees to assist with sorting, dividing and sampling the peanuts.

An NMDA regulatory clerk contributes to the overall operations of the grading station and the station is supervised by the NMDA Fruits and Vegetable Inspection supervisor.