Checking this week on the peanut market.
The peanut market is very slow right now as the industry is waiting on the number of acres that have been officially planted by farmers all the way across the United States. This, right now, appears to be a record. Acreage was predicted to be up eight percent over last year. And, they are also to average four thousand pounds per acre. That would be close to another record. The average last year was only thirty seven hundred and fifty pounds per acre. We have a long way to go to see what the total will be.
Other impact on the market is the present price, which is down. Down from about sixty cents a pound to fifty four cents for shell peanuts. That’s jumbo runners all coming from our shelling plant.
Also on the list is the loan peanuts. Peanuts were placed in the loan earlier, but now it’s time to bring them out and repay that loan as part of the peanut program. We have two hundred thousand more tons this year in the loan program than we had last year.
Right now we’re predicting 3.7 million tons this year. That would be a record. The price is going down because of the extra, but, we don’t have them made as of yet. We will watch the weather and see if we can get a good crop of peanuts by this coming September.
Argentina crop is having trouble. They have been getting rain every day. That could open up a market for the peanut farmers in the United Kingdom.
Tyron Spearman reporting for Southeast AgNet.