Peanut Shortage

Who knew?

The U.S. is experiencing a significant peanut shortage due to drought and acreage transitioning from peanuts to producing high-priced cotton.

Overall, there was a 15 percent reduction in planted peanut acreage. In Georgia alone, the crop is estimated at 30 percent smaller this year — that’s potentially 3 billion fewer peanut butter sandwiches in American lunch boxes.

“The second factor that happened was, we have not gotten the rain,” Barnhill said. ‘We’re in a La Nina: hotter and drier in the Southeast and in the Southwest.”

For that reason, many of the peanuts that farmers did manage to get in the ground did not survive the drought.

Expect price increases.