Checking on the peanut market and the marketing factors right now.
The USDA has given us an estimate on what the acreage would be this coming year. Farmers have reported the amount of acres they did planted in the ground and they’re saying now we’re going to have 1,360,000 acres and that is down 28% from last year. Average yield 3,879 pounds per acre and that is down, that is up from last year and then overall production will be estimated at 2,637,000 tons.
That is down 29%. That should spark an increase in prices but so far it has not. Farmers are still receiving about $500 per ton.
The increase in items to produce the crops have all increased and the one they really are worried about are is the diesel for the tractors that have to harvest this crop. That’s going up, gasoline’s going up, labor costs are going up and overall farmers are going to have a hard time balancing the sheet this year as we bring in this crop.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.