Market Prospects for Groundnut in West Africa COMMON FUND ...

The characteristics of the major international groundnut markets as
export destinations will be discussed below.
4.2 Europe
The European groundnut market is centered on two trading hubs, ie,
Rotterdam and London. While Rotterdam is the center of the edible
groundnut trade, and France the center of the European groundnut oil market
(of particular reference to Senegal), the UK market includes buyers of
groundnuts for the formulation of animal feed and birdfood, both of which
have significantly lower quality requirements than those for edible groundnut.
In general European demand for groundnut has been increasing in recent
decades, shifting from an oilseed-dominated market toward increased
demand for edible groundnut, about 80% of which is roasted for further
processing into snack foods or peanut butter. While peanut butter accounts
for as much as about 35% of total groundnut consumption the continental
markets, the figure is closer to 5% for the UK market (Kettlewell 2003).
The decline of the groundnut oil market due to competition from
sunflower, soya and rapeseed has brought the European demand for oilseed
groundnut down from about 500,000 MT per year in 1983 to about 200,000
MT today (Kettlewell 2003). The main European processors and refiners of
groundnut oil are Cereol (France), Romi (Netherlands), Anglia (UK) and
Karlshamns (Sweden and UK).
In general, the European groundnut market has become less diversified
and more concentrated over the past decade. It is said that until the late1990s,
a range of large and small origin shellers/suppliers provided products to large
and small dealers to serve large and small consumers – from end-use
manufacturing industries to supermarkets. In recent years, the pattern has
shifted toward large origin shellers/suppliers providing products to a few small
dealers serving a few large consumers, with an increasing market share taken
up by supermarket chains.
There is a corresponding overall trend toward mergers between the
larger importing houses, resulting in the absorption or disappearance of the
smaller trading companies (which formerly traded large volumes), in favor of
fewer, larger trading companies, which tend to trade in (paradoxically) smaller
volumes, due in part to quality problems of supply. The merger between
Cargill and the Golden Peanut Company in March 2000 is seen as evidence
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