California walnut shipments continue as a new season approaches with good volume expected.
Carriere Family Farms of Glenn, CA relates inventories are low, but overall movement continues. Currently, most inshell walnuts from California have been sold, which is good since Chile has entered the market selling primarily inshell walnuts.
California’s storage levels have been depleted, which is good. However there are still walnut kernels still in inventory, with decent movement. The company expects to have less than 100,000 tons of product left in inventory going into new crop. Part of this volume is most likely committed already.
The outlook for the 2026 harvest is a big crop, which is concerning to growers experiencing greater supply than demand.
This has resulted in the past few years, more trees being taken out, with acreage decliningfrom more than 400,000 to about 376,000 producing acres today. Despite the smaller acreage, 2025 saw the 2nd largest crop ever, amounting to about 810,000 tons.
While there is another big crop on the trees, the final crop size will depend on how summer develops. Carriere is hopeful for slightly lower volume compared to 2025. A crop of about 750,000 to 775,000 tons would be manageable, but total acreage needs to continue to drop for the industry to become profitable again.