peanut butter prices

[Andrea J.]

from Clark Howard

(andrea's disclosure i am a peanut butter fan......by spoon, on oreos, on apples, bread, crackers, bagels and celery. we heard of the price increase a few weeks ago and already stocked up........9 jars of peter pan! no wonder i weigh what i weigh )

Rise in the price of peanuts could force product substitution


One of your favorite foods is about to get much more expensive as peanuts have skyrocketed in cost at wholesale.

From time to time, something that is a central food item leaps in cost. It can be coffee or dairy products. Right now, the price of premium ice cream is in the stratosphere. (That's probably good for me because I buy a lot less of it now!)

Now peanut lovers face the cost of wholesale prices almost tripling in just one year. Yet at the same time, peanut butter is only seeing typical 35%-40% increases in prices. That's because the actual cost of buying a jar of peanut butter is only partially accounted for by the price of raw material like peanuts.

When something goes up in price, people will eat less of it or go without if that's an option. My daughter has an extreme peanut allergy that is life threatening. So we have all kinds of peanut substitute products in our kitchen, like sun butter that's made from sunflower seeds.

By the way, there is no conspiracy with the high cost of peanuts. The rise in price is because of severe drought in key peanut-growing Southern states. The drought withered the crop and caused an imbalance in supply and demand, resulting in the higher prices.

There is one thing I hope comes from all this: My family and I love to travel. But there's one major airline we can't fly because they are the only airline without a policy of removing peanuts from the plane when passengers have severe and life-threatening allergies. Maybe now the run-up in price will change their minds!

[Steph853]

off topic- have you tried the peanut butter from whole foods?? AMAZING...they also have chocolate peanut butter and white chocolate...Your grind it yourself!!

[IloveAruba2]

now I have to buy oreos just to try that....never thought of it.