Most of the countries (especially in Europe) lifting the COVID-19 lockdowns and getting ready to get back to their normal lives, of course with new measures. People in general concerned about the second wave pandemic, though the first wave hasn’t ended with increasing cases in Brazil and the USA.
The business for the food industry is more or less the same at the demand side, as lower demand in the HORECA industry mostly taken over by retailers.
According to the USDA GAIN May Report, the overall food retail sales in the Netherlands have increased by 9% and home deliveries by 40% since the COVID-19 outbreak – consumers are increasingly buying more food in the supermarkets, or ordering food online instead of eating out.
We wish all of our partners and their families good health.
You can find brief market updates for Hazelnuts, Cashews, Brazil Nuts, Pecans, Coconuts, and Dried Apricots below. BATA FOOD will continue to publish the latest dried fruits and nuts industry news and our comments on our blog.
The harvest season is coming (or already there) for many of our products such as Dried Mulberries, Dried Apricots, Dried Tomatoes, Hazelnuts, Capers, Chia Seeds, Herbs, etc. and we started offering (or will do soon), so please feel free to contact us with your needs.
We also suggest you follow and bookmark our Ready-in-Stock Products page to see our live stocks in the Netherlands as customs cleared and duty paid.
👉 California will release the 2020 almond production “Objective Crop Estimate” on July 7th, 2020 (today) and we’ll update you with further news.
Update 08 July 2020 – California Almond Objective Estimate Report 2020 published
Hazelnuts (Filberts)
At INC Webinar on June 2020, Turkey published the 2020 Hazelnut crop estimation at 620,000 tons (in-shell) which is 23% down compared to the 2019 crop.
Hazelnut prices declined from the high levels in May as most of the exporters wanted to move their free stocks before the new crop. There are no free stocks available in the market (even TMO sold their remaining stocks in May), only small quantities in factories stocks but we saw around 9-10% correction for conventional hazelnuts for both 2019 and 2020 crop offers.
Turkish Lira is stable since the last few weeks against US Dollar (today 6.86 – recovered from 7.26 on the 7th May).
We think there will be an upward trend after the harvest in August (shipments will start in early September), as TMO will be in the market again and probably with a higher buying price this year. With around 800,000 tons of huge 2019 crop with a very small ending stock – it’s very easy to see that 620,000 tons of new crop will be enough to keep the prices firm.
We suggest covering up for your needs until late September as prices seem attractive at the moment and we may see fluctuations, especially after TMO’s buying price announcement.
Cashews
For cashews, prices are at decade low levels with a big impact of COVID-19 pandemic on already low prices.
As mentioned before, some of the cashew processing factories in Vietnam stopped their production due to very low demand, especially from China. Shipments of RCN from Africa are delayed due to lockdown, but processors in Vietnam are still very reluctant to buy as they can not foresee future demand.
The US and EU market demand is good but they already have enough stocks, and demand from Asian countries is very poor. We think it’s a good time to start buying at these very attractive price levels as we can not imagine prices going down further.
Brazil Nuts
Nowadays, the main challenge for Brazil Nut importers is getting their orders on the sea. Due to lock down in Bolivia most of the shipments were postponed and so far only limited quantities of new crop Brazil Nuts arrived in Europe.
Brazil Nut price at origin is very attractive at the moment but there is a – higher than normal – difference in spot price due to slow shipments. We forecasted before that there may be an oversupply issue after June – now revising to SH July / August as most of the importers are expected to get their stocks in the warehouse until that time so we may see prices weaken.
Our current recommendation would be covering for only short term needs until the shipment issues are solved.
Pecans
Crop seems good (hopefully with better weather conditions compared to the previous crop) and prices are at low levels as the industrial demand is slower in the USA (most of the US pecans are used in the bakery). Demand from China is also slow (just like Cashews) so pecan prices are going down in South Africa as well.
Shippers in the USA and Mexico are now facing with new competitions in South Africa, Australia, and Argentina. Sluggish demand and reluctant buyers at the destination pushing packers to offer attractive prices.
Dried Apricots
Turkish Dried Apricots crop in Malatya / Turkey estimated as 85,000 tons by authorities and it’s expected to be a total of 90,000 – 95,000 tons crop as quantities will add up from neighboring provinces.
Harvest is already done and now drying has started – thankfully the frost damage was not serious this year except the overnight frosts in late April.
Demand is sluggish at the moment but sellers are in no rush as the 2020 dried apricot crop is smaller this year and TMO will also intervene in the market just like they do with the hazelnuts to prevent dried apricot prices falling down.
Just like last year, organic dried apricots will be difficult due to quality concerns so we strongly recommend covering up your needs before it’s late.
Sulphured Dried Apricots product page
Natural and Organic Dried Apricots product page
Coconuts
After the lockdown period in the Philippines, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, producers are around 2 months behind schedule and trying to catch up the backlog with slower production and lower staff due to COVID-19 measures.
There are some better offers for Organic Virgin Coconut Oil and Organic Coconut Flour products in Sri Lanka but most of the offers are for September onward shipments so it seems that spot positions in the US and Europe will remain low with high prices until the end of 2020.
Please note that we are offering Coconut products such as Desiccated Coconut, Coconut Flour, Coconut Oil, Coconut Palm Sugar – so please feel to check our stock positions at our Ready-in-Stock Products in Europe page.