Peanut butter to cost more

Peanut butter, which is in common 90 per cent of American houses, is set to cost more, as unfavorable climate conditions led to one of the worst peanut harvests this year.

Foods giant Kraft has decided to increase prices for its Planters brand peanut butter by around 40 per cent starting this Monday, while Jif-maker J. M. Smucker is all set to hike prices by 30 per cent starting Tuesday.

ConAgra, a Fortune 500 company, will introduce price increases of more than 20 per cent for its Peter Pan brand peanut butter later this month.

Meanwhile, consumers have already started seeing increases at grocery stores. The Publix chain's spokesperson Maria Brous admitted that they had already slightly increased retail prices for peanut butter and expected them to go even higher with the increase in costs of goods.

The U. S. Department of Agriculture recently revealed that prices for a ton of runner peanuts, which are commonly used to manufacture peanut butter, jumped from $450 a ton in 2010 to roughly $1,200 a ton this year.

As per The National Peanut Board, US consumers spend around $800 million on peanut butter and consume an average of around 6 pounds of peanut products a year.