The Largest Peanut Producers in the World
Where are Most of the World’s Peanuts Grown?
Groundnuts are used in the production of a variety of snack foods, confectionery & peanut butters, as well as a protein-rich feed for birds & animals. Peanut products ranging from peanut oil to peanut flour and shells serve various culinary and biofuel applications during cooking and baking.
But where are they grown? The World consumes peanuts as one of their major oilseed crops with USDA statistics showing 49.8 million metric tons go to harvest each year. worldwide in the 2022/23 crop year.
Groundnuts have diverse applications: as essential ingredient to manufacture draught of foods, confection and peanut butters, and also as protein rich power source for an animal and bird feed. Various peanut products from oil to flour as well as shells serve multiple purposes in cooking while being used in baking and producing biofuel. But where are they grown?
1. China
China is the world’s largest Peanut producer. In 2022/23, the Chinese peanut crop reached 18.3 mmt, up 4% from the previous five-year average, with the growth sustained by ridiculously strong domestic demand. Peanut imports by China remain the highest globally because of its massive consumption demand which resulted in US$1,028,039,000 worth of imports during 2021.
70% of Chinese peanuts are grown in the Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Guangdong, Jiangsu provinces, farmers there can produce high yields. The “Hsuji” variety, known elsewhere as the “Spanish” type, is the most popular.
China’s agriculture is essentially a smallholder farm system. More than 210 million farmer households own less than 0.667 hectares of farmland while the typical farm measures at just.497 hectares. The peanut production in China reached 3.8 mt per hectare throughout 2022.
2) India
- Indian Peanut production declined by 7.4 percent in 2022/23 to 6.3 million mt. The country is the second largest Peanut Producer globally & is famed for its excellent groundnuts since ages. The combination of suitable climatic factors, abundant soil quality and increasing investments in contemporary farming equipment allows India to strengthen its position as a peanut producer.
- The Indian state of Gujarat produces the most peanuts in the country, with a share of 37 percent. Other leading groundnut growing states of India are Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, & Karnataka. In India, a farmer has about 1.08 hectares of land, and in 2022, they grew about 1.2 metric tons of peanuts from each hectare.
3. Nigeria
Nigerian peanut production is increasing, up 6.4% to 4.5 million mt in 2022/23. The warm and humid climate and abundant water use afforded by northern Nigeria make it a good place to grow peanut and meet rising demand. Peanut oil is widely used for cooking in Nigeria, thanks to its high smoke point & delicious nutty flavour.
The average farm size for subsistence farmers in Nigeria is between 1 & 3 hectares, with northern farm sizes being greater than for those in the south. In 2022, Nigeria’s peanut yield amounted to about 1.3 mt per hectare.
4. Argentina
- Not being one of the top peanut producer nations in the world, Argentina still manages to keep a steady flow of high-quality peanuts on the market.In 2022/23 it produced 1.15 million mt, down from 1.34 million mt the previous year due to a drop in both yield and planted area. Priority is given to the quality of product by the nation. The main use of Argentinian peanuts occurs in luxury snacks alongside whole-nut confectionery production. The average peanut production of Argentina’s growers reaches 3.3 metric tons per hectare.
5. United States
- Aside from Europe, the US is one of the largest markets for peanut products, with pricing at retail level high and demand large, particularly for peanut butter. It is also a significant peanut grower in its own right with a focus on Runner peanuts. The United States primarily cultivates this variety of peanut which represents over 80% of their peanut production since it is best suited for manufacturing peanut butter and confectionery items. US peanut production yields about 4.5 mt per hectare.
6. Sudan
- Sudan holds the position as the fifth biggest peanut producer worldwide after harvesting 2.5 million metric tons during the 2022-23 year. The regions of Kordofan and Blue Nile together with Darfur and Kassala and Northern produce 35% of Sudan’s total cash crops including groundnuts. Under normal conditions growers harvest about 0.8 mt of Sudan peanuts from each hectare of planted fields. On average Sudan peanut growers achieve 0.8 metric tons of output in each hectare.
7. Senegal
The West African country of Senegal ranks as Africa’s third largest peanut producer while peanut agriculture supports more than half of its rural population base amounting to 4 million individuals. During 2022/23 the production of 1.7 million metric tons of peanuts in Senegal resulted in 90% of the agricultural output being exported to China.
The majority of Senegal’s farming businesses operate as small-scale family operations that use between 1.5 to 5 hectares of land. The average peanut output for these farms reaches 1.3 mt per hectare.
8. Brazil
- Brazil stands as South America’s second biggest peanut production territory and ranks as the second major peanut eating nation after America.The climate conditions in Brazil create extended opportunities for farmers to select plant and harvest times so they can grow crops ahead or behind peanut harvesting periods. A total of 750,000 metric tons of Brazilian peanut production emerged from land that delivered 3.7 metric tons per hectare in the 2022/23 harvest.
It’s the time of the peanuts
Global peanut markets show rapid expansion as experts predict 54 million metric tons of peanuts to be produced by 2026.Americans consume approximately three pounds of peanut butter annually which when combined would cover the entire floor of the Grand Canyon. The demand for groundnuts maintains a steady pace because they continue to be a dietary essential for global populations.
