Please find brief market updates for Hazelnuts, Almonds, Cashews, Brazil Nuts and Dried Figs below. BATA FOOD will continue to publish latest dried fruits and nuts industry news and our comments at our blog.
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Hazelnuts
Unofficial forecast of Ministry of Agriculture is 705,000 tons for 2017 crop hazelnuts (inshell) but it is still not announced officially. Exporters Union also announced their forecast as 761.066 tons. Together with the 100,000 tons carry over, it is expected that total availability will be more or less 850,000 tons.
On 17 August 2017, Ministry of Agriculture announced that they will start buying 2017 crop hazelnut via TMO by next week. TMO will pay 10 TL/kg (2.84 USD) for Levant quality and 10.50 TL/kg (2.98 USD) for Giresun quality inshell hazelnuts.
Ferrero, major buyer of hazelnuts in Turkey also announced their buying price as 9.25 TL (2.63 USD) for inshell hazelnuts.
Expectation of farmers were of course higher (around 12.00 TL) and governments buying price is only 0.75 TL higher than what Ferrero is paying. Farmers estimate their production size before crop and register quantities to government’s system. If TMO decide to buy only registered quantities (like previous years), then farmers will need to sell surplus quantity to factories, which may cause market to go down around 8.00 TL / kg.
But if TMO decides to buy from farmers without any restrictions, then their pricing policy may work. In that case, TMO may have to buy 300,000 – 400,000 MT from farmers which will cause a serious financial burden for government. As we still don’t know about TMO’s buying policy (only price), we will have more idea once we hear from them.
Almonds
Almond Board of California released their July Position report last week. Demand is strong, shipments are up 11% on July 2017 compared to July 2016 and Year to Date shipments are 16% up as 2.1 Billion pounds. Shippers at California already sold 23.3% of new crop. During past few weeks there is a regular price increase as European importers need to be covered for Christmas season and small figures for initial harvest also supporting it.
Perhaps it may be a good idea right now to cover for short term needs and await for new crop to arrive in Europe for the rest.
Cashews
After arrival of RCN from origins to Vietnam, prices dropped a little bit, producers trying to get some stocks moving. Shortage for especially good quality cashews such as WW320 and WW240 can be expected soon, as RCN in Vietnam is not good and RCN coming from Ivory Coast is reported to be low.
Right now market is relatively stable but we do not expect that prices will decrease any longer as kernel prices are not equivalent to RCN prices and somebody has to take the loss or wait prices to go up again. Sellers are not eager to sell their stocks at these levels and buyers are hoping for lower prices – but positions still remain open for Q4. We recommend covering until Christmas season while market is relatively stable, as prices can easily go up again.
Brazil Nuts
There are no good news for Brazil Nuts. Situation did not change, prices are high and there is hardly anything to sell at origin. There have been a lot of delisting after prices more than doubled up, but there are still companies who still need to buy some stocks especially bits and pieces to fulfill their contracts.
We definitely do not think that prices will go down at least for 6-7 months and after that we will see how the market will develop for a new crop.
We have few pallets of whole brazil nut kernels in stock right now, if you have any interest feel free to get in touch.
Dried Figs
2017 crop first shipment date for Dried Figs is expected to be announced on 25 August 2017 after a meeting at Aegean Exporters Association.
Quantity was looking good for dried figs this season but two weeks ago heavy rains at figs growing regions harmed around 20% of crop. Farmers are asking for same high prices as last crop and they are not in a rush to sell at low prices as most of the growers are financially strong. Processors slowly started buying raw materials from farmers at high levels to cover their needs for first shipments. It looks like opening prices will be no different than crop 2016 late season levels.
We will start offering organic and conventional dried figs crop 2017 on 25 August 2017. Feel free to send us your inquiries and we will make an offer as soon as possible.
Below find some recent photos of dried figs effected from rains – rotten, discolored.
