Well, rain showers slow down action in the peanut field, but farmers are moving right along.
Georgia has reported 61 percent of their crop is planted. That compares to 41 last week, 71 percent last year. Alabama is up to 57 percent planted, 37 last week, and 52 percent of their crop was last year.
Florida, they say, has 71 percent of their peanuts have been planted, and that compares to last week’s 54 and last year’s 71. So, the peanut crop is moving in nationwide. We have 60 percent of the crop in the ground and 66 percent last year, so we are running a little bit behind.
Other news in the peanut world is the buying of peanuts by China. China has become the number one buyer of peanuts during the last three months. They showed them increasing their volume of 361 percent, and now they are 40 percent of the total volume of peanuts going into the export market.
Second buyer was Mexico, with 23 percent of the volume. Canada was third, 19 percent of the volume, and they are all trying to buy up this crop that we have got now so they can contract for next year. But right now, everything is slowed down due to the weather.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.