The marketing board will help promote the tree nut as well as be involved in quality standards and research. “This will be a benefit to our industry,” says Amy Hochderffer of Fresno, Ca.-based Meridian Growers. “Almonds and Walnuts have their established boards but until now pecans have been a little unorganized. The Pecan Council will pool together information across the industry making it accessible to all and create a transparent knowledge base. It’s definitely going to bring the industry together.”
As it moves into its 2017-2018 harvest of pecans, the industry will have a slight carry-in. “The consensus amongst shellers is that there are a lot of lower-grade pounds out there in cold storage that haven’t been committed,” says Hochderffer.
Tight supply coming?
Looking ahead though, Hochderffer sees the possibility of a slightly shorter supply for the upcoming year. “We’ve had some early droppings in parts of Arizona where we grow and they can’t quite determine if the cause is due to weather, tree health, farming practices, the lack of chilling hours or any combination of that,” she says.
Pricing still has many factors at play for the upcoming harvest. Hochderffer describes the last crop year pricing as relatively stable.
As it moves ahead, the focus now is maintaining orchard health. “Overall our crop has looked pretty good so we hope that it’ll continue to stay on the trees as long as it can to get nice mature nuts off of our orchard,” says Hochderffer.
For more information:
Amy Hochderffer
Meridian Growers
Tel: +1-559-458-7272
ahochderffer@meridiangrowers.com
www.meridiangrowers.com
As it moves ahead, the focus now is maintaining orchard health. “Overall our crop has looked pretty good so we hope that it’ll continue to stay on the trees as long as it can to get nice mature nuts off of our orchard,” says Hochderffer.
For more information:
Amy Hochderffer
Meridian Growers
Tel: +1-559-458-7272
ahochderffer@meridiangrowers.com
www.meridiangrowers.com