# Groundnuts

A legume whose pods ripen underground, grown largely by smallholders and crushed for oil or eaten as nuts and peanut butter.

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/

Oilseeds & oils · No. 95

- Not on a critical list
- HHI 1,725 · moderately concentrated
 Oilseeds & oils · Foundation · Matter

Peanut flowers push their stalks into the soil, so the nuts ripen underground, mostly on small farms in Asia and Africa.

Chart: Illustration: Groundnuts

##### Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

A South American legume, the groundnut buries its own pods after flowering, so it likes loose, sandy soil. World output was 57.6 Mt in shell in 2024.

##### Three things to know

1. Argentina, absent from the top six producers, was the largest groundnut exporter by value in 2024, with 22.7%.
2. China grows about a third of the world's groundnuts yet was also the largest importer, with 17.3% of import value.
3. World groundnut exports were worth about $3.9 billion in 2024, under a tenth of maize's $44.3 billion.

##### The journey

1. 1 **Sowing**Seed sown in warm, sandy soil
2. 2 **Pegging**Flower stalks bury pods underground
3. 3 **Lifting**Plants lifted, dried and threshed
4. 4 **Grading**Shelled, sized and tested for aflatoxin
5. 5 **End uses**Oil and cake, or roasted snacks
 Covered in [How commodities tradeCommodities](https://www.materialinsights.org/learn/commodities/how-commodities-trade/)

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## Other sections

- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/correlation/index.md)
- [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/extraction/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/production/index.md)
- [Stocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/stocks/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/cycles/index.md)
- [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/trading/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/movement/index.md)
- [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/criticality/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/groundnuts/links/index.md)