USAID cancels large contracts of Georgia peanut butter supplier

“The contract cancellations are a big deal, of course, because USAID is more than 90% of our business,” Mark Moore, Mana’s cofounder and CEO, said in a telephone interview Thursday, adding that more USAID cancellations could be coming.

The nonprofit has a roughly 150,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Fitzgerald, a small rural city in South Georgia, and employs about 130 people. It has grown quickly in the last 15 years.

Mana shared a copy of the USAID termination letter, dated Feb. 26, which states the supply contracts are “not aligned with Agency priorities” and that “continuing this program is not in the national interest.”

The terminated contracts represent 35% of Mana’s orders, enough to feed 300,000 children, according to the nonprofit.

Mana makes nutrient-dense food pouches containing milk, multivitamins and peanut butter. The canceled USAID contracts affect countries including South Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Madagascar.

Its U.S. manufacturing facility in Ben Hill County is in the middle of a peanut field. Georgia is the leading U.S. producer of peanuts, responsible for nearly half of the country’s peanut crop, according to the University of Georgia.

“We make these packets of peanut butter in Fitzgerald because it’s the best place in the world to make a packet of peanut butter,” Moore said.

Notices sent out in mass mailings this week are terminating over 90% of USAID’s contracts for humanitarian and development work around the world, The Associated Press reported. The Supreme Court temporarily blocked a judge’s order requiring the administration to release billions of dollars in foreign aid.

As of Thursday afternoon, USAID didn’t appear to have canceled another $23 million in Mana supply contracts, according to Moore.

“Our assumption is they intended to cancel all our contracts, but for some reason they didn’t get around to it. We don’t know,” Moore said.

He added that Mana is waiting to be paid $20 million for packets it already has produced and shipped.

USAID did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock called on the Trump administration to reverse the termination of Mana’s contracts. In a statement shared by a spokesperson Thursday, Warnock said it was a “reckless action” that “will hurt Georgia farmers and cost hard-working Georgians their livelihoods.”

The office of U.S. Rep. Austin Scott, who represents Georgia’s Eighth Congressional District, which includes Fitzgerald, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. Scott praised Mana earlier in February as “an incredible mission-driven organization” with “significant community impact” in his district.

Moore said Mana has no near-term plans to halt production or lay off workers. The food packets have a shelf life of two years.

“Maybe UNICEF would take it or maybe someone like World Vision, or there’s many, many groups that use our product,” although those groups typically get it through USAID grants, he said.