Peanut prices in Turkey's Adana fall to 60-70 lira as Osmaniye traders halt buying
Peanut prices in Adana, the province that covers about 60 percent of Turkey's peanut requirement, have dropped to 60-70 lira per kilogram in the middle of the harvest. Growers in Kozan say traders based in Osmaniye have stopped buying, pushing the price down from 100-110 lira at the start of the season. Yields this year are reported as strong, with one farmer harvesting about 20 tonnes from 50 decares.
Peanut prices in Turkey's Adana province have fallen to 60-70 lira per kilogram in the middle of the harvest after traders based in neighbouring Osmaniye stopped buying, growers in the Kozan district told Turkish media. Adana alone covers about 60 percent of Turkey's peanut requirement, which makes the price formed in its fields the reference point for the national market.
Close to 40 percent off the opening price
According to haber365.com, peanuts found buyers at 100-110 lira per kilogram when the season opened and slipped to 60-70 lira once purchases were suspended. Grower Adil Eker, quoted by sondakika.com, put the opening range slightly lower, at 90-110 lira, and said the crop was still selling at up to 85 lira a week before the latest decline. On either account, the fall from the top of the opening range is close to 40 percent within weeks of the first liftings.
Eker said the current level does not cover production costs. “We call them, they don't come. They say ‘we are not buying' in order to push the price down,” he told sondakika.com, referring to buyers in Osmaniye. Akdeniz Gerçek carried the same account, describing the halt in trading as a claim made by producers. None of the three outlets published a response from the Osmaniye traders.
A good crop with nowhere to wait
Harvesting in Kozan is running at full pace. Peanuts were planted on 20,000 decares (about 2,000 hectares) in the district, sondakika.com reported, and the lifted crop is spread across the fields with tractors and loaders, dried in the open, then sieved before being sent to processing plants. Eker said yields are strong this season: about 20 tonnes from 50 decares, roughly four tonnes per hectare.
Workers screen the crop in heavy dust as tonnes of peanuts are moved, cleaned and made ready for dispatch to factories, according to sondakika.com. All three outlets describe Adana as Turkey's most important peanut production centre, which means the volume coming off these fields has no obvious alternative destination in the domestic chain.
- Opening price: 100-110 lira per kilogram (90-110 lira according to the grower)
- Price one week before the latest fall: up to 85 lira per kilogram
- Current price: 60-70 lira per kilogram
- Planted area in Kozan: 20,000 decares; reported yield about 20 tonnes from 50 decares
Timing favours the buyer
The sequence from lifting to factory delivery leaves growers little room to sit out a weak market: the crop is already out of the ground, drying in the open and moving through sieving lines toward the plants. That asymmetry is what producers point to when they describe the pause in buying as a way of setting a lower price rather than a reflection of demand. Growers are still looking for a way out of the drop, haber365.com reported, with Eker saying traders need to change their stance.
The reports do not quantify how long the halt has lasted, how much of the Adana crop remains unsold, or what volumes Osmaniye's trade normally absorbs. Nor do they give processing or export figures for the season. What is documented is the price path — 100-110 lira at the opening, up to 85 lira a week before, 60-70 lira now — in a province that supplies 60 percent of Turkey's peanuts, alongside growers' statement that this level is below their costs.
