We are following dried fruits and nuts industry carefully to give you a better insight about the major commodities. Please find brief market updates for Almonds, Hazelnuts, Cashews, Brazil Nuts, Macadamia, Dried Apricots below. BATA FOOD will continue to publish latest dried fruits and nuts industry news and our comments at our blog.
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Almonds
Last week we received February shipment figures of California Almonds (click here for Almond Industry Position Report). Total almond shipments are 27.92% higher between August – February compared to last year same period. February shipments are 1.4% up for domestic sales and 3.3% down for export with a total 1.8% down against February 2016.
New crop (2017) looks so far so good, California is having a long bloom period with a more opportunity for pollination, so right now we can look for a larger crop. As the shipment figures are not running fast at the moment and with an expected record breaking new crop, carryover can be higher this year.
Hazelnuts
Major hazelnut buyers are already covered their needs until new crop, so demand is not so big and no one is rushing to take position at the moment.
Until mid-April, frost is still a major risk but so far there are no bad news at Black Sea region of Turkey, so in a summary we see declining prices for hazelnuts and we believe market will be relatively stable in a short term, of course if everything goes as planned.
Cashews
For cashews, everyone is waiting to see Vietnamese crop to have an idea and take position . Bloom already started in Vietnam and India but both quality and quantity is not certain at the moment. So for high prices of cashews, we can’t see situation improving at least till May 2017. As the prices are already historically high, even bad crop does not mean that prices will increase but it is more up to demand and willingness of buyers to continue paying high prices.
Brazil Nuts
It is now very clear that Brazil Nut crop will be very short at whole Amazon with the extreme drought in this area. Shippers at origin already started requesting contracts to be rolled into 2018 which would be a nightmare for those who have sold everything bought.
Currently there is a huge demand especially in Europe, most of the sellers are out of stock or refusing to sell their stocks on hand and there are basically no offers at origin since they are uncertain about quantities of new crop too.
We will have more idea in few weeks about the situation but right now it looks like prices can only move upwards.
Macadamia
Huge inshell macadamia sales to China, it’s been said that 70% of upcoming crop is sold even before seeing first shipment. Macadamia kernel prices are highly connected to inshell sales, so even with the higher availability of Macadamias, supply of kernels are very limited due to big demand at Asia. It will be a probably good idea to cover your Macadamia needs especially for the first shipments.
Dried Apricots
Dried Apricot market is firm at the moment as the frost risk will continue until early April. Demand for dried apricot is slow at the moment but it can change quickly in case of frost at Malatya region. Buyers watching market closely not to get caught unprepared like many did on 2014.