Peanut prices open high, market looks forward to future gains
On September 17th, amid continuous autumn rain, Zhuang Bingwen, a large-scale peanut grower in Qiugeng Village, Huagou Town, Gaoqing County, Shandong Province, was busy spreading out his newly harvested peanuts to dry in his own shed. “Quite troublesome, as it has been cloudy and rainy for three or four days straight, and these undried peanuts easily become moldy and black, which will affect the selling price.” Zhuang Bingwen said. This year he planted 12 mu of peanuts, with a yield of around 1000 jin per mu. The current price is a bit higher than last year, and he worries that poor quality will prevent him from getting a good price.
Shandong is China's main peanut-producing region. According to relevant experts from the Peanut Research Institute of the Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, affected by factors such as low peanut returns last year and early drought weather, both the planted area and harvested area of peanuts decreased this year. The current opening purchase price is above 2.8 yuan/jin, higher than the same period last year. The recent week is the peak harvest period, but continuous autumn rain has been widespread, affecting harvesting and timely drying, leading to a decline in quality. Based on comprehensive analysis, the peanut price trend will continue to rise.
Gaoqing County, located in the Yellow River floodplain, has mostly sandy soil, which is relatively suitable for planting peanuts. The county's peanut area has remained above 20,000 mu year-round.
⟦NL> Zhuang Bingwen introduced that peanut planting is now basically mechanized, with sowing, film mulching, and four ridges in one machine, completed in one pass. Once the seeds are sown into the soil, there is basically no need to manage them. The daily management work is just spraying pesticides, applying fertilizer, controlling pests, and controlling excessive growth. This year Shandong suffered severe drought, but Gaoqing was not a severely drought-affected area, and with good irrigation conditions, peanut yields were not greatly affected. Generally, plots yield 1000 jin per mu, and high-yield plots can reach 1200 jin.
50-year-old Geng Peihong planted 7 mu of peanuts this year. He is a “meticulous person” in the fields. “On average, each mu requires 3 cubic meters of farmyard manure and 50 kg of diammonium phosphate, costing 150 yuan; 2 kg of film costs 12 yuan, machine plowing 40 yuan, machine harvesting 50 yuan, and 36 jin of seeds, totaling 216 yuan. Spraying for growth control and pest control three times also costs 15 yuan. Calculated at this year's opening price, the income per mu is about 2000 yuan, which is somewhat more cost-effective than growing wheat or corn. But peanuts require more labor at the harvest stage, generally 1 to 2 labor-days, totaling about 5 labor-days.” Geng Peihong told the reporter, holding his farming notebook.
Peanut growers in Gaoqing report that there are two main difficulties in growing peanuts now. First, there are few specialized peanut machines. At the harvest stage, a large flat hoe is welded onto a tractor to turn the peanuts up from the ground, then the peanut plants are transported home, and the pods are manually beaten off, which consumes manpower. They have heard that specialized harvesting machines now exist, but local growers generally have small peanut areas, so spending 30,000 to 40,000 yuan on machinery is not realistic. Second, the drying problem of peanuts is hard to solve. After harvesting, peanuts must be dried promptly, otherwise they will mold and discolor, affecting their appearance. Drying requires space, and farmers generally dry them on roads or rooftops, lacking dedicated drying areas. This year, with the rainy weather, this problem has become even more obvious.
Du Zuozhong, deputy director of the Gaoqing County Agriculture Bureau, introduced that last year the county's peanut area once reached 25,000 mu, because the price the year before was 1 yuan per jin higher than in a normal year. Last year the price returned to rationality, and this year the planting area dropped again.
“When growing peanuts now, peanut seeds are key, and it is best to change them once a year. Farmers generally have a relatively high awareness of improved crop varieties, but many still save their own seeds. Peanut seeds can be kept for two to three years, but if kept longer, crop quality will degenerate, affecting yield and quality, with more loss than gain.” Du Zuozhong said.
He also summarized that there are three issues in peanut planting that need attention now.
First, there is a “last mile” problem in the promotion of new technologies. Because those farming now are mostly middle-aged and elderly people, they mostly continue their habitual farming and management methods, and understanding and applying new technologies takes time.
Second, the problem of straw disposal. Peanut straw is high-quality feed, but because agricultural film must be used as mulch, the straw is mixed with plastic, and removing the plastic requires a great deal of manpower, reducing the effective utilization rate of this resource.
Third, it is difficult to promote machinery. Peanuts are a minor coarse grain, different from field crops. Farmers mostly plant them in scattered marginal plots, which is not conducive to mechanical cultivation. Now, most machine operators modify machinery for plowing, sowing, and turning peanut fields, and the harvest stage is still mostly manual work.
In Gaoqing, there are also many small-scale peanut processing and purchasing enterprises, and business is fairly brisk.
Tian Quan of Liuxinnan Village, Heilizhai Town, runs an oil-pressing workshop. The oil-pressing technique is a family craft passed down through generations, and he often goes through streets and alleys to press oil for farmers. “What we mostly do is custom processing, charging a certain processing fee. Now it is 7 mao per jin of peanuts processed. The oil-pressing process is cracking the skins, frying in a pan, then pressing the oil. Generally, 100 jin of peanuts can produce 28 jin of oil, and the pressed oil is pure peanut oil. In recent years, more people have been processing their own peanut oil, and business is quite good. Last year's processing volume reached 6 tons.” Tian Quan said.
There are also brokers in the peanut purchasing and storage business, who drive into villages and households to buy peanuts. After the peanuts are collected, they are mainly sold to large peanut oil processing enterprises to earn the price difference, generally earning a profit of 0.1 yuan per jin of peanuts; some are also purchased and kept for processing and sale by their own oil workshops. This year, Tian Quan began doing this, setting up a purchasing point near Xingwang Village close to Huagou Town. The current daily purchase volume is 1 to 2 tons.