Agricultural News
Peanuts Post Another Record Year for Production, Pose Challenge for Marketers
Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:08:15 CDT
More acres and great yields resulted in a lot of peanuts to market from the 2012 crop year. Bob Parker, president and CEO of the National Peanut Board, is responsible for merchandising those peanuts into the marketplace.
"We had an increase in plantings last year. Then, on top of that, we had a record yield, just an absolutely record-shattering yield and have produced about 3.4 million tons of peanuts- compared to a previous record of about 2.8 million tons. So we have a monumental task of moving these peanuts into the market."
Parker says that China has moved into the market because they couldn't get their normal supplies out of India. He said there internal consumption figures have climbed over the years.
"Our normal export market is about 300,000 to 350,000 tons. We could do 700 to 800,000 tons of export business this year, more than doubling our typical export business because of China.
"Also, we're looking at opportunities to fill some of the gaps that China is leaving, because they are not exporting like they have in the past."
Parker said it will be very important, going forward, to continue their contacts with the Chinese to keep them inside the U.S. market as a customer. It's not likely that they will continue to buy on the scale that they bought on this year, but we still want them as a customer even we can keep them buying 50 or 60 thousand tons, that's a 20-percent increase in our export market.
He said they are also trying to come up with more ways for domestic consumers to expand their consumption of peanuts. He said they are really expressing the health and wellness aspect of peanuts. Peanuts have the highest protein content of any nut and are the source of over 30 vitamins and nutrients.
You can click on the LISTEN BAR below to hear more from Bob Parker.
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