Bulk of the groundnut is sold by the farmers as pods and small percentage as kernels. Grading of groundnut is a pre-requisite before mechanical shelling to keep the percentage of kernel breakage to a minimum. Mechanical graders can grade 600 kg of pods per hour into 3 distinct grades. But grading is not followed extensively. The marketing for the rainy season crop generally commences in October and is over in February. The peak period of marketing is in November-December when over 45% of the market-surplus of the groundnut arrive in the market. About 80% of the marketable surplus of groundnut pods is taken by the farmers personally to the market. The sellers have to pay tolls, taxes, commission, labour wages, weighment charges and deduction for charity. In the regulated markets, certain amenities are provided to sellers and exhorbitant market charges and deductions in settled price are not made. The growers can secure maximum value for their produce in the regulated markets. The regulated markets have been organized only in some of the main groundnut producing areas and the number of such regulated markets and the quantity of produce handled by them is grossly inadequate. The methods of sale generally adopted are the cover system, open system and the auction system. There is great diversity in the use of weights and measures in the groundnut trade. The pods and kernels are sometimes sold by measure. The main source of farmer's finance is the village merchant who gives advances in small amounts for cultivation operations and other expenses. Wholesale merchants and owners of shelling (decorticating) establishments advance money to the village merchants and in a few cases to the farmers in the nearby villages. The banks confine their activities to big towns and advances are made to the wholesale merchants against the produce in the godowns pledged to the bank. Credit has to be made available in the village by the banks directly to the farmers to free them from the clutches of the greedy local merchants so that they secure fair price for their produce. The quality of Indian kernels is considered low due to higher percentage of free fatty acids. Free fatty acids tend to accumulate during storage and movement. The practice of wetting the pods before decortication or shelling accelerates the development of free fatty acids. If there is damage to the kernels in shelling, the free fatty acid develops faster. * Shrivelled and immatured kernels also contain more free fatty acids than fully developed kernels. Free fatty acids content can be reduced by harvesting mature nuts, drying the produce properly, careful decortication to avoid breakages and splits, better storage and avoiding unnecessary handling. In the internal trade the quality of pods and kernels is judged by a visual examination except in contract sales when the proportion of damaged kernels, nooks, brokens and splits, percentage of foreign matter and moisture content is determined. The ISI has prescribed certain grades for groundnuts (kernels for oil milling and hand picked selections) produced and marketed in the country. These standards are based on the trade practices followed in the country in respect of the types and grades. There is a export for edible kernels which are named, Hand-Picked Selections (HPS). The HPS with extra bold size of kernels are exported to European countries and fetches about three times the price of ordinary groundnut kernels. There is considerable scope for expansion of this trade. Farmers should take advantage of this and grow bold-seeded varieties especially under irrigation. These kernels are used in bakery and confectionery industry and also directly for edible purposes as fried and salted nuts. The characteristic features for the export groundnut varieties are as follows. Seed size – 40 to 50 numbers/ounce Shape - uniform shape (round) Nutty flavour Sucrose content - more than 6% Protein content - 23 to 33 % Low oil content - less than 35 % Good blanching character Aflatoxin content - less than 2 ppb.

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