The drought continues in the southeast, especially in Georgia, South Georgia, northern Florida, and lower Alabama.
The drought has closed all peanut operations, just about it, and nobody can get the peanuts planted in the ground, and that’s going to delay everything moving into the 2026 crop. USCA predicted from last year’s crop an 11% increase. That’s also keeping the market down as far as increases, but right now with the drought nobody wants to contract and nobody wants to give a contract with a situation like it is.
They said domestic food consumption this coming year will actually go down about 8 tenths drop. Peanuts for crushers also go down mainly because of the quality of the crop last year. They said a 22% drop in peanuts going into peanut oil from last year’s crop.
Peanut exports are predicted to increase 1%, but so far that has not happened, and they’re beefing up the export market to try to regain that market that has lost during the last two years. Farm service agencies said they’re showing a 3.1% increase in this last six months on exports. Indian stocks, though, are going to be high, 80% higher than last year unless we get these peanuts moving, and that’s going to be a problem for the market next year.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.