USDA’s stocks and processing for peanuts shows that for the month of January, that’s the sixth month of the marketing year, peanut stocks and commercial storage total 5.55 billion pounds, and that compares to last year’s 4.14, and that is up 34 percent.
The market’s almost flooded. They said even farmer stock peanuts are up 33 percent in volume. Shell peanuts showed that they were up 30 percent as well, and roasted peanuts were only up about 10 percent.
The total shell peanut stocks are worth 621 million pounds. That too is up 30 percent. So the peanut market is having a problem with too many.
They said edible stocks of shell peanuts by type, Virginia and Valencia type peanuts, are at 95 million pounds. That’s up 55 percent. So overall, there’s way too many peanuts around, and they’re having trouble getting them into the market.
In January, they said shellers shelled 14.5 percent more than last year. Commercial processors at 180 million pounds are shelled edible peanuts. That’s 2.2 percent less than last year.
Government purchases were still pretty good though. They purchased during the last six months 13.5 million pounds of peanut butter and 259,000 pounds of roasted peanuts. That is down 8.5 percent from last year.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.