Spanish almonds are experiencing "quite an abnormal pricing situation," as reported by Josep M. Boncompte, Commercial Director of Unió Nuts. The average price of organic almonds has dropped by up to 27.3% compared to the previous five campaigns, and that of the Marcona is down by 26.5% compared to the same dates last year.
"These extraordinarily low prices have coincided with a slowdown in the growth of consumption which had been observed until now. In fact, the demand had been growing at a faster pace than the supply in previous years. This has led to a global situation in which the volume grown still exceeds the consumption needs, although we expect these to balance out in the coming years."
"We have also identified some irregularities in the demand for Spanish almonds by the industry, which had so far remained quite regular, and this year appears to be less seasonal," says Josep Maria.
"In Spain in particular, and in Europe in general, we have a shortage of almonds that we are covering with imports, mainly from America. But these imported almonds, to which the processing industry is already accustomed, are of different varieties than those produced in Spain."
"It should be noted that, in the past, the domestic production was not large enough to meet the industry's needs, but now the industry should start adapting to the Spanish production, because the volume of the Spanish harvest is expected to increase significantly in the coming years, as new plantations are coming into full production. We must do so both for sustainability reasons, because it makes no sense to import a product when we have our own production, and because the quality and properties of Spanish almonds are far superior."
"National almonds offer added value and at Unió Nuts we want to make this clear to the country's major nougat producers, with whom we will be holding negotiations in the coming months, and also to the processing industry in general. We must promote the value of national almonds versus imports at the retail and industry level, but also at the consumer level, and to that end, we must boost the promotion of a local, healthy and quality product."
"We expect the acreage to continue increasing in the next 4 or 5 years"
Almonds are, by far, the most cultivated nut in Spain, with more than 538,353 hectares (106,398 of which are organic), according to 2023 figures from the Federation of Agri-food Cooperatives of Spain.
"We expect the pace of new plantings to stabilize in the next 4 or 5 years, in which there will be an expansion of irrigated crops. The combination of this expected increase and the entry into production of already existing young plantations means we still have about 10 more years of exponential growth in terms of volume ahead of us."
"There is a good demand for almonds in Europe, especially for quality products, and we believe that the industry and the market will absorb this growth well, regardless of whether the supply is conventional or organic," says Josep M.
"At this time, organic almonds are the ones most affected by the macroeconomic context, which is taking a toll on the capacity of families to pay the higher price of organic products, but we hope that the situation will stabilize."
"Moreover, we are confident that the increase in the supply of other nuts, such as pistachios, which are also growing strongly in Spain, will help boost the overall consumption of nuts, considered a healthy product category. The increase we are seeing in the production of other nuts is going to be very positive in general for the entire sector."
For more information:
Unió Nuts
c/ Joan Oliver 16-24,
43206 Reus – Spain
(+34) 977 33 00 55
unio@unio.coop
https://unio-nuts.coop