Following July’s California Almond Objective Measurement Report from the United States Department of Agriculture, the market has settled down again for almonds.
The report noted that while growers anticipated an increase of five to 10 percent more in almond supplies, the reported estimate was less than what was anticipated. “It created a little bit of panic with the buyer’s market. They worried the crop was short and started buying a lot and moved the market another .30-.40 cents,” says Bikram Hundal of Custom Almonds LLC. in Earlimart, Ca. “But eventually we got closer to harvest and realized that we have enough crop so it came back again and is all settled now.”
With the 2019-2020 crop just starting, Hundal notes that volume right now is up five to 10 percent from where it was last year at this time. “The demand of almonds is still strong,” says Hundal. However the new crop is behind slightly. “We are about 10 days behind. But we’ll catch up. We didn’t reach those peak 100s on temperature last month and the month before, it was cloudy and raining. That delayed the crop a little bit.”
The China factor
At the same time, the picture on demand for the nut has changed. “China has temporarily suspended the import of US agricultural goods and that’s impacted the market a little bit,” Hundal says. “But Europe hasn’t come in fully to buy everything yet so they will come in strong. California is the leader for almonds but Australia is shipping a lot of goods to China now. With China, Australia is the number one supplier now.”
On top of that, domestic demand for almonds continues to grow annually. “Our market share is improving every year. Almonds are getting into everything. People are interested in plant-based proteins and almonds are a rich source of proteins,” says Hundal. “The by-product for almonds also has use for it—there is almond butter, almond milk and more. Almonds have a leadership position in this compared to other nuts.”
Solid pricing
This leaves pricing strong at about $2.60/lb. back to growers currently which is up somewhat from $2.45/lb. at this time last year. “We’re seeing stronger prices despite the fact that we’ll have a better crop than last year. That means the demand is pretty good,” says Hundal.
Looking ahead, he sees that price will stay strong until November even, when the market heads into the holidays and buying tends to be wrapped for the season. “This month, there will be a lot of shipments that will go to India because there’s early Diwali festival there and they want early shipments, as well as to the Middle Eastern countries,” says Hundal.
For more information:
Bikram Hundal
Custom Almonds LLC.
Tel: +1 (559) 757-3689
Bik.hundal@toorfarming.com
http://www.customalmonds.com/