In the United States peanuts are popular. They form the basis for a staple of many American’s diets, peanut butter, a reasonably priced source of protein. As a consequence, there has been much press coverage lately about the likely increase in the price of peanut butter. The poor peanut crop in 2011 has caused raw peanut prices to rise and this increased price is expected to be seen on grocery store shelves shortly.

Today’s market size is the size of the market for peanuts for use in the production of peanut butter in the United States. In the year 2000 peanut butter accounted for the end use on half the peanut crop and in 2009 peanut butter accounted for 63.5% of peanut usage.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2000 and 2009
Market size: 753 million pounds and 1.19 billion pounds respectively.
Source: “Peanut Use by Type of Product,” part of the USDA’s Economic Research Service series of reports on the availability of foods by type, available here.
Original source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service
Posted on January 17, 2012