With some almond growers in California expecting this year's crop to come in under the 2.1 billion pound mark that was predicted earlier in the year, they've begun holding back some product. With fewer almonds available, prices have firmed up over the last few weeks.“The market has gone up a bit in the last month,” said Brian Wright of Del Mar Farms. “Some guys are complaining about crop receipts, so guys are not as willing to sell, and that's tightened things up a bit.” While early estimates put this year's almond crop at 2.1 billion pounds, Wright thinks the total volume of nuts harvested will be less than that. A figure closer to 1.9 billion pounds is what he thinks production will be this year. As more growers sense the crop will be smaller than anticipated, they sell fewer nuts, and that makes for higher prices.
“Some attribute there being less production than anticipated due to the drought,” noted Wright. “Some think it's because the crop is alternate bearing, and that's why the crop won't be as big this year.” Another idea is that the strong, sustained worldwide demand for almonds caused many growers to expand their growing areas. Because some of the land on which new almond orchards were planted haven't had as good growing conditions, that's resulted in less-than-expected yields. Whatever the reason, more people think this year's crop will come in under initial projections.
“The crop doesn't look like it will be where it was expected,” said Wright. “The jury's still out, but from what we've seen and what we've heard, it doesn't look like we'll get close to the estimate.”
For more information:
Brian Wright
Del Mar Farms
+1 209 894 5555