USDA Agriculture Department says we produced 3,590,000 tons of peanuts this past year. That’s an 11% increase over the previous year. Domestic use for domestic food is predicted to decrease this year about 1.6% so far.
Peanuts for crush, that’s going into peanut oil, is up 22%. This could have been caused by some quality issues during the peanut harvest and some dry areas. Peanut exports are predicted to decrease as well 1% but they’re running behind about 13% so far.
FSA figures they’re tallying that it’s about 16% fewer being shipped out to other countries right now. Indian stocks they say will be about 66% higher this coming year and that will hurt prices as well. Checking on other areas, Texas says they’re going to grow about 150 to 180,000 acres.
The next report, they said the problem in the Texas area is that peanut prices are low, input costs are high, and rain is sparse. They’re worried about the input next year if they have enough water to grow the crop at this present condition. Farmers may not survive another year, one farmer said.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.