USDA has issued new numbers on peanut stocks. They say the stocks of peanuts because of the big crop last year are higher, but lower usage is being reported.
They said the U.S. peanut export forecast has been reduced to a billion pounds. Now all the way down to 1.3 billion pounds total, the U.S. has exported fewer peanuts, down 17%, for August through November, compared to last year. Shipments have started off slowly, they said, but there have been reports of some lower quality peanuts compared to last year, which could result in larger second-half shipments, especially to China, because they like to buy those and make those into peanut oil.
Also unchanged on that forecast was the amount of peanuts going into crush. Peanut candy stocks were also forecast to be down a little bit, along with peanut snacks. Overall, they said the average price next year would be about 24 cents a pound.
If that holds true, that means they’ll be about peanuts going into the PLC program will provide growers some help when their payments are made next October. That’s an update from USDA.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.