Stock Up on Peanut Butter Now Before Prices Go Through The Roof

by Kevin Surbaugh

Have you heard? The time to buy peanut butter is now, friends. The Wall Street Journal along with other media sources is reporting that prices for Jif, Peter Pan, and other peanut butter jars will be going up as much as 40% starting as soon as next week. The story from last week said,

Wholesale prices for big-selling Jif are going up 30% starting in November, while Peter Pan will raise prices as much as 24% in a couple weeks. Unilever wouldn't comment on its pricing plans, but a spokesman for Wegmans Food Markets, the closely held supermarket chain in the Northeast U.S., said wholesale prices for all brands it carries, including Skippy, are 30% to 35% higher than a year ago.
- Wall Street Journal

Don't let the prices of this beloved staple beat you. Stock it up now! In just one (1) year, the wholesale price of peanuts has jumped from $450 per ton to $1,150 a ton, thanks in most part to the drought in much of the south and southwest.

As with any crop, the challenges facing peanut farmers begin and end with the weather. In Georgia, the leading U.S. peanut producing state, the planting season was the driest in memory for John Harrell, a sixth-generation peanut farmer in Whigham, Ga. Peanuts, typically planted between mid-April and the beginning of June, had to wait until several weeks after that for any rains, he said.

"I don't remember a year that you didn't catch a shower or had so little moisture in the ground to get the seed up," said Mr. Harrell, age 56. "It was dry about as deep as you can dig down."
- Wall Street Journal

The fact is according to ABC news,

Peanut butter and jelly are such staples in American households that an average kid will eat about 1,500 PB&J sandwiches by the time he reaches high school.

While peanut butter is the most popular peanut product, peanuts at the ball game could get more expensive and so could French fries, which are often fried in peanut oil at restaurants.

- ABC News

So while you can ease the shock a little by stocking up on a few jars of Peanut Butter now before those prices nearly double there are other things that will still get us. Besides the french fries those of us that love Chick-fil-a could see a similar problem with our favorite chicken, as Chic-fil-a Chicken is broasted in peanut oil as well.

Please pray for a quick end of the drought so that peanut prices and related products will come back down in price soon. Then in the meantime, I suggest again stock up.

Kraft Foods Inc., which launched Planters peanut butter in June, is raising prices 40% on Oct. 31

Peter Pan will raise prices as much as 24% by October 23rd

Jif (the choice of choosy moms and the number 1 selling peanut butter) is going up 30% starting in November


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