The Mintec Benchmark Prices of Argentinian peanuts (raw, 40/50, CIF Rotterdam) have been steady in the four weeks up to 28th April, at USD 1,450/MT. The benchmark is unchanged compared to the same time last year. This is despite frost damage in Argentina at the end of March 2022.
The forecast for 2021/22 peanut production volume in Argentina (current 2022 harvest) has been adjusted down after the key growing areas of the central Cordoba province experienced sub-zero temperatures on three consecutive days at the end of March.
At the International Peanut Forum held in Budapest in the last week of April, Diego Yabes of the Argentina Peanut Chamber (CAM) said that the 2021/22 Argentine peanut output is projected to reach 894,873 tonnes kernel basis (1.28m tonnes in-shell basis), down 17% year-on-year (y-o-y). The agency projects the 2021/22 production yield at 2.30 tonnes/ha kernel basis (3.30 tonnes/ha in-shell basis), down from last year’s 2.61 tonnes/ha.
Following the decline in production, the CAM projects 2021/22 Argentine peanut exports at 612,000 tonnes, approximately 100,000 tonnes less (-14%) than in the previous campaign (712,680 tonnes). Despite the anticipated decline in exports in 2021/22, the volume of export shipments in the first quarter of 2022 maintained a strong pace, at 176,472 tonnes up 2% y-o-y.
