June 2009

Peanut growers plan to plant record-low acreage

Faced with a one-two punch of oversupply and a major food safety scare, Virginia peanut growers are expected to plant 50 percent fewer acres this year than they did in 2008.

That’s according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s prospective plantings survey released in March.

The rapid decline of Virginia peanut plantings comes just a year after growers in the Old Dominion felt their industry was coming back from record-low production levels in 2006. Only 16,000 acres of peanuts were planted three years ago, but acreage had risen to 24,000 acres in 2008.

Southampton grower M.L. Everett, chairman of the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation Peanut Advisory Committee, said there is basically a year’s supply of peanuts already harvested and in the nation’s food production pipeline, so processors and manufacturers have cut their contract prices for growers by 25 percent.