Peanut stocks and processing report from USDA has been issued for the month of September, that’s the second month of the marketing year, showing that peanuts are up 17.2 percent in storage compared to last year.
Remember they had a big crop last year, but this crop is still in the field and not yet determined. Raw peanuts and primary products were down 4.2 percent August through April compared to the same two months last year. Peanut butter usage is also down 1.1 percent for the two-month period, but the market is rebounding somewhat, only down seven-tenths for that month of September.
Snack usage is also down 13.8 percent and down for September 15.8 percent, so we’ve got to get to buying more peanut snacks and utilize that big pile of peanuts we have in warehouses. Peanut candy is still down usage in candy at 4.2 percent for the two months but trying to recover by only one-half percent in September. Government report shows that they bought 4.4 million pounds of peanut butter for various nutrition programs and 25,000 pounds of roasted peanuts.
So the market’s a little down a little bit right now but everybody needs to buy a few more peanuts.
Audio Reporting by Tyron Spearman for Southeast AgNet.