Almond growers and shippers are concerned over almond pricing and the current supply situation. In California, there’s an 800 million lbs.+ carryover of the crop of almonds from last year. Meanwhile, the new estimate has come out for the 2023-2024 season and that’s for an approximate 2.6 billion lbs. crop. “Three years ago, the biggest crop we hit was 3.1 billion lbs. but the immediate problem is this huge carry-in we’re facing,” says Bikram Hundal of Custom Almonds LLC.
The new estimate has come out for the 2023-2024 almond season and that’s for an approximate 2.6 billion lbs. crop.
Why so much carry in this year? “When the season started, there were shipping issues and the sentiment from buyers was that they didn’t expect prices to be high,” says Hundal. “People were holding and not selling which got us into this. Buyers are still scared and think that California might drop the pricing even more. They don’t want to buy in a dropping market--they want to buy in a rising market.” He adds that the demand is there--it’s the notions around pricing that’s the issue.
“The price doesn’t even account for inflation so the returns to the growers are not even at a break-even point. It’s pretty bad,” says Hundal. As growers throughout North America have seen this year, input costs have increased exponentially.
He’s also concerned about crop quality and is not very optimistic about the crop as “growers’ return has diminished over the years and a few of them are trying to navigate these tough times by reducing their input costs, skipping NOW sprays etc.,” he says. “However we will find out more this week once California will be shaking the almond trees in full swing.”
Retail pricing still high
Hundal says the problem is also at retail. “The prices there are still high but at the wholesale end, they are still low. Retailers are not willing to drop their prices and that’s why we’ve been pushing to move the product. We need them to bring those prices down,” Hundal says.
The team from Custom Almonds.
In all, it’s affecting the sales outlook for almonds. Hundal says that while at this point in the year, it generally is sold up to six months of product ahead, right now, it’s only one month ahead. “Buyers should continue buying because this is the lowest price,” he adds.
As for that new crop, it is getting a later start to the season by about two to three weeks thanks to the rains and cooler temperatures the state has seen this year. “So people will be busy at the end. At the very end, if it’s a wet year which it might be, it might also affect the last part of the harvest and people might be in a crunch to finish it on time,” Hundal says, noting he believes California will be harvesting until November this year.
For more information:
Bikram Hundal
Custom Almonds LLC
Tel: +1 (559)-346-8212
[email protected]
www.customalmonds.com