Checking on the market for peanuts. The international market right now is faced with a dwindling supply from all origins with the only help coming possibly from the U.S. and a few from China. Nonetheless, China continues to face struggle with its exchange rate and its high freight rates. The U.S. should be able to help some with that, at least on raw peanuts, maybe shipping more into China.
There’s still some current crop that is available at competitive levels, although some levels continue to increase and its supply continues to go down. As to the U.S. new crop, it’s unclear at this time what the quality of this crop will be. The prices are already much higher than the current crop that was in the loan program.
It looks almost certain that international prices will continue to increase, no matter if you’re from Western Europe or other markets around the globe. Argentina planted 25 percent less than last year, despite projecting higher yields, heavy delays in harvesting with the rain almost every day and fog. Argentina is looking to plant a similar crop for next year, according to officials there.
Brazil has a reduction of 30 percent. That’s the competition for the U.S. peanut farmer.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.