/ CHAPTER 1 



ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE 

 OF PEANUTS 



By 

 B. B. HIGGINS' 



The peanut is generally recognized as one of the important crop 

 plants of the world. This recognition has arrived very slowly. Although 

 the plant has been known to Europeans since the sixteenth century, it 

 was only approximately 100 years ago that the oil mills of Marseilles, 

 France, began importing and crushing peanuts grown in North Africa. 

 This may be considered the beginning of large-scale industrial use of the 

 crop, though an oil mill was established at Valencia, Spain, SO years 

 earlier (7). The desirable qualities of the peanut oil brought early success 

 to the enterprise, and mills for crushing peanuts were quickly established 

 in other European countries. Since then, the commerce in peanuts has 

 expanded slowly to its present proportions. In 1947 the commercial crop 

 of the world amounted to 10,579,000 tons. 



The relative importance of the producing areas of the world is shown 

 in table 1. While figures given for many countries are admittedly only 

 estimates, they do indicate the relative importance of various world areas 

 insofar as the commercial production of peanuts is concerned. They in- 

 dicate that the peanut is now an important crop in the warmer areas of all 

 six continents of the world. The wofld trade depends largely on the 

 European demand for oil. India, China, Burma, Sumatra, Java, and the 

 French African colonies have long been the principal exporters of peanuts. 

 At present, the supply is inadequate to meet the demand. World War II 

 so upset and confused agricultural production in Europe that there is an 

 enormous shortage of edible fats and oils. Increased production of peanut 

 oil appears to offer the most feasible possibility for early and permanent 



> B. B. Higgins is botanist, Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station. 



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