Peanuts: trade faces hurdles

Mundus Agri. Last week, several factors came together to dampen trade in the Indian peanut market. In the US, the USDA is still sticking to its high crop estimates.

 Elections bring trade to a standstill.

After recent price increases, the peanut market saw slight declines again last week. Elections were held in the Indian state of Gujarat, the most important trading center for peanuts, which brought the main markets to an almost complete standstill for two days. In addition, according to government regulation, citizens were only allowed to carry 50,000 rupees in cash during this period, which further slowed down trade. The fact that the prices for sunflower oil are significantly lower than those for peanut oil further slows the groundnut market. According to Indian traders, they are, therefore, currently stuck with about 30% of their arrivals. Exporters are still waiting impatiently for China to start buying larger quantities. Before then, no noticeable price increases are to be expected; on the contrary, there were price declines compared to the previous week.

Market players disagree with USDA

In the USA, the harvest is now as good as completed, as the experts report. The quality is still convincing with low aflatoxin levels, but yields are said to have been lower in some areas, especially in the growing southeastern regions. The USDA left its November crop estimate unchanged at just under 2.89 million mt, while market players themselves consider these values too high. Their forecasts are for a maximum of 2.75 million mt. Demand seems to be relatively stable at the moment and US exports even increased slightly year-on-year in the period August-September 2022.