Large peanut volume meets rain, prices plummet, price-protection purchases instead spur expanded planting in a vicious cycle

Last year's peanuts still haven't been fully digested, and this year's peanut farm-gate prices are falling straight down! The peanut chaos that arose from rumors last November caused domestic peanut farm-gate prices to collapse, and in the end, to stabilize peanut prices, the Council of Agriculture arranged matched purchases at 40 yuan per Taiwan catty. However, this November, peanut farm-gate prices have been even more sluggish, with some areas of Yunlin County already falling below 30 yuan per Taiwan catty.

Ding Minggui, chairman of the Republic of China Peanut Industry Association, said that after the Council of Agriculture intervened last year, this year's peanut planting area also increased, and this year there were no typhoons and no rain during the field-growing period, so the peanut harvest was abundant and overflowing. Recently, during sun-drying, rain was encountered instead, causing water damage to the peanuts and a decline in quality, and some poor-quality products flowed into the market and affected prices. Moreover, processors have not yet finished digesting last year's purchased inventory and are no longer able to absorb more, and can only hope that the Council of Agriculture quickly comes up with countermeasures to assist farmers.