SOUTH AFRICAN PEANUT BUTTER SALES JUMP 18%

Higher prices are hurting South Africans’ demand for whole peanuts, but citizens are set to spread 18 per cent more peanut butter than they did four years ago, an industry body said. Consumption of the nuts is set to drop to 25,000 metric tons in the 2017 season, 15 per cent less than four seasons earlier, Wandile Sihlobo and Tinashe Kapuya, economists at the Agricultural Business Chamber, said in an emailed report. Meanwhile, people will eat 25,300 tons of peanut butter, about 18 per cent more than in the 2012-13 season. Producer prices for choice-grade peanuts have climbed 82 per cent to 15,000 rand ( US$ 1,112) a metric ton from 2013. A 400-gram (14-ounce) jar of peanut butter has increased about nine per cent over the same period, data in a separate Agbiz email showed.