Читать книгу Oil and Oilseed Processing - Ingrid Aguilo-Aguayo - Страница 17

Groundnut or peanut (Arachys hypogaea L.) is one of the most important oilseed crops in the world. Groundnut consumption as well as commercial products containing groundnuts vary in large proportions as peanuts have been developed into a large number of products like roasted peanuts, peanut butter, peanut paste, peanut flour, peanut “milk,” or peanut cheese analogues (Arya et al. 2016). In Western countries, groundnuts are mainly used for direct consumption as salted and roasted nuts. In the US, groundnuts are also utilized for making peanut butter and confectionary. In turn, in China and India groundnuts are primarily crushed for oil production (Pandey et al. 2014).

The cultivation of peanuts, which was originated in South America, has expanded and groundnuts are currently being produced in over 100 countries of Asia, Africa, and the Americas (Pandey et al. 2014). Over 70% of the groundnut growing area comes under arid and semi‐arid regions (Shasidhar et al. 2017). Figure 1.1 shows the annual production of groundnuts per country during 2017.

World production during 2017 totaled approximately 47.09 Mt, which represents an 18% increase from the 39.9 Mt produced in 2013 (Torres et al. 2014). World area harvested with groundnuts has also increased over the last decades and is currently over 27.94 Mha. This trend is likely to continue to grow. Major groundnut producers are China, India, and the US with 17.09, 9.18, and 3.28 Mt produced in 2017. The US is one of the biggest groundnut exporters, with 0.36 Mt exported in 2016. Argentina, which was the seventh major producer during 2017, was the third major exporter during that same year with 0.29 Mt of groundnuts exported. Argentina, the US, Sudan, Senegal, and Brazil account for over 71% of total world exports (Torres et al. 2014). Other countries like Vietnam, India, and several African countries periodically enter the world market depending on market demands and their crops quality (Torres et al. 2014). Indeed, in 2016, India was the major exporter with 0.61 Mt of groundnuts exported. Moreover, major groundnut importers in 2017 were the Netherlands, China, Indonesia, and Mexico with 0.32, 0.19, 0.14, and 0.13 Mt respectively. Peanut imports into the EU, Canada, and Japan account for approximately 78% of the world's imports (Torres et al. 2014). Approximately 5.03 Mt of groundnut oil were produced in 2014, mainly in Asia (69.4%), Africa (23.8%), and the Americas (4.5%). The top five peanut oil producers are China, India, Nigeria, Myanmar, and Sudan with an approximate production of 1.87, 1.25, 0.27, 0.21, 0.15 Mt respectively.