Peanut Butter Price Jumps After Worst Peanut Harvest In 30 Years

If you thought living on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches could get you through the recession, think again. The sandwich spread is seeing a major price hike.

Thanks to a failing peanut crop due to last summer's scorching hot weather, there's a shortage of peanuts in supply. Big brands like Peter Pan, Jif and Smucker's are left with little choice but to raise prices, reports the Wall Street Journal.

The price jumps range from 24 to 40 percent, with Jif planning to raise prices by 30 percent in November and Peter Pan by up to 24 percent in the coming weeks, reports MarketWatch Radio.

So far, the Wall Street Journal says, USDA figures show the cost of a ton of unprocessed peanuts has spiked from $450 to $1,150 since last year.

Researchers at New Mexico State University told ABC KOAT News that high heat, strong winds and bone-dry conditions created the worst peanut season in more than 30 years.

Peanut butter is consumed in 90 percent of U.S. households. Americans consume on average over 1.5 million pounds of peanut butter and peanut products each year, notes to the National Peanut Board.

The peanut crop is not the only commodity to suffer from severe weather conditions. French wine and Italian pasta are some other endangered national exports impacted by climate change. Last week, a report claimed chocolate could become a luxury item if farmers in West Africa didn't adapt to the warming climate.

Whether you like your peanut butter organic, creamy or nutty, be prepared to pay a hefty price for it. Or stock up before those price hikes kick in.

Comments

[earthshiva]

07:35 PM on 10/31/2011

"Let them eat broccoli"

[Steve Irons]

04:08 PM on 10/17/2011

I think 1.5 billion pounds of peanuts right? 1.5 million would be less than one peanut per person....

[IndependentAndProud]

12:56 AM on 10/16/2011

I enjoy peanut butter (PB & J on toast made from Milton's bread), but I can easily hold off until normalcy returns.

[dickjjdic]

09:57 PM on 10/11/2011

Who cares???????????????

[frank day]

08:03 AM on 10/12/2011

People like me that feed a family.

We picked up 60lbs of Peter Pan peanut butter yesterday at Sam's at $1.27/lb.

[rbeach4960]

09:20 PM on 10/11/2011

2000 jars of peanut butter. Let's see at the old price per ton of $450 and with processing, packaging and reasonable markup ..... peanut butter should be 75 cents a jar.

with the new price per ton it should be ..... $2

why are we getting ripped off.

bamboozling it is

[ladycj711]

08:54 PM on 10/11/2011

Any excuse will do to raise prices

[londonwitch]

07:57 PM on 10/11/2011

Tell Jimmy to go back to the farm instead of being in the news taking on things he doesn't know about.

[grailknight]

07:29 PM on 10/11/2011

That peanut prices continue to go up in no surprise. I order from Krema Nut Co. and my last order was nearly double in price than the one I placed last year. My order taker told me at the time it was due to gas prices. Now I fear that I'll have to quit PB next year because once you've had Krema, there's no going back to Jif!

[londonwitch]

07:59 PM on 10/11/2011

That is strange that you said that, because where I live I have noticed PB going down in price, of course after they read these headlines it will go up. It started going down after all the poisoned peanut butter they put out.

[grailknight]

08:49 PM on 10/11/2011

Well, let me elaborate. I've not been keeping up on the price of a jar of Jif or Peter Pan, but the stuff I do get is a gourmet brand from Columbus O. Last year I paid $1.99 for a 16 oz jar. I buy it by the case and it's shipped to me. This year it cost $2.79 a jar. Since Ohio isn't famous as a peanut growing state, they do have to pay to have their raw material brought in and the price of gas in the last year was over $1 a gallon higher than the year before. Krema also uses Spanish peanuts, which are a premium.

[mgh406]

06:59 PM on 10/11/2011

The price has been steadly increasing WELL BEFORE the drought. Every time gasoline goes up everything in the grocery store goes up. When gasoline eases back off the groceries stay up. The drought is just a Bull SH-- excuse.

[londonwitch]

08:00 PM on 10/11/2011

But gas is going down all over the country, I know it has dropped in TN by about forty cents then when Thanksgiving gets close it will jump up again.

[onegr8writer]

08:23 PM on 10/11/2011

I totally agree mgh406 ! The prices will never come back down despite gasoline prices or stellar weather years. It's a gimmick to raise the price, and eventually the consumers forget about the price hike . Gotta' please the shareholders don't we ?

[bshum3]

06:30 PM on 10/11/2011

Does anyone else find it strange that we will have plenty of peanut butter after throwing more money at the retailers and middle men ? So much for "shortages".

[olbob757]

05:49 PM on 10/11/2011

Oh, I knew the politicians would screw it up somehow. We all know the Bible says: Man does not live by bread alone, he must have peanut butter...or something like that.

[Al Schrader]

05:10 PM on 10/11/2011

Ah, just buy Reeses Pnut butter cups. You get the chocolate as a bonus....Al-

[ptuph1]

07:19 PM on 10/11/2011

Mmmmmmm ..... great idea, Al. 'Scuse me now ..... must get to the store and stock up before the price is raised on Pnut butter cups, too. ;-)

[Ron D]

05:03 PM on 10/11/2011

after all congress gets raises for doing nothing

[barbb0750]

05:03 PM on 10/11/2011

Looks as though more and more people will be buying from the dollar menu and more and more people will be getting fatter.

[Ron D]

05:05 PM on 10/11/2011

You mean there is anouther way to lsurvive I have been liveing out of dollar menue all my life

[candyazzbb]

08:31 AM on 10/12/2011

People who are poor won't get fat from the dollar menu.. it'll help them survive.

[Ron D]

05:01 PM on 10/11/2011

If there is a inflation and every thing is going up where is my social security raise going to come had no raise for last 3 years