2016 California walnut shipments are forecast at 670,000 tons, up 11 percent from 2015’s volume of 603,000 tons. For the season starting in 2016 there was an impressive 16.8 percent jump in loadings. Growing conditions and quality are reported good for the 2017 crop. One of the larger California nut shippers is Mariani Nut Co. of Winters, CA, which grows almonds and walnuts in the Sacramento Valley on 14,000 irrigated acres.
Posts Tagged “almond shipments”
California almond domestic shipments as well as across the globe hit a new record this year, despite port and trade issues and Covid-19 complications.
The Almond Board of California (ABC) in a May 2021 Position Report shows the California industry shipped 219 million pounds in May – a record for the month – bringing the total this crop year to 2.45 billion pounds, setting a new record in just 10 months. The crop year for almonds runs from Aug. 1 to July 31.
“This shows continuing high demand for California almonds among consumers around the world,” said ABC president and CEO Richard Waycott. “People love almonds because they’re a remarkably sustainable plant protein, they’re versatile in a range of cuisines, they have outstanding health and beauty benefits, and they’re delicious.”
California almonds ship to over 100 countries, and export growth has been soared 30% overall compared to last year to date and record shipments in a number of markets.
A month ago, India made history for California almonds. For the first time ever, a single market exceeded 300 million pounds of imports in one crop year. The current May report shows India has now received 322 million pounds and is up 54% over the previous year to date.
The entire Asia-Pacific region continues its strong growth with a 46% increase overall. In that region, the China/Hong Kong market is up 72% year-to-year despite tariffs, South Korea increased by 42% and Vietnam is up an astounding 132% from last year.
Almost all European markets, east and west, continued their impressive growth in response to the high demand. Germany and Spain posted strong gains as did the Netherlands and Italy. Overall, European imports are up 18% from 2019-20.
The Middle East and North Africa are also regions with strong growing markets. Countries of note include the United Arab Emirates, which grew 31%, Egypt with 20% growth and Morocco, which has a year-to-date increase of 148% over last year.
Growth in the U.S. continues to be strong, especially considering that the domestic market is large and well established. The year-to-year increase stands at 4% for the crop year.
“The world-wide appetite for almonds and our range of products continues to grow,” Waycott said. “Almonds outpaced all other nuts in new product introductions ranging from dairy alternatives and snacks to confectionery, bakery and bars. Our industry members have done a terrific job of moving the current crop and meeting the demand from consumers here in the U.S. and around the world.”
Shipping increases are seen this season for almonds, pistachios and prunes, while declines are forecast for pecans and walnuts.
Almond Shipments
2019 California almond crop shipments are initially predicted to be 2.5 billion pounds, with volume to be 9.6 percent above the 2.28 billion pounds of the previous year, according to the USDA.
Bearing acreage for 2019 is forecast at a record high of nearly 1,2 million acres. Forecasted yield is 2,140 pounds per acre, 2.4 percent higher than the 2018 yield of 2,090 pounds per acre.
Blue Diamond Growers of Sacramento, CA, which specializes in almonds, expressed optimism over the new shipping season as the harvest wraps up this month.
Pistachio volume hit about 986.7 million pounds for the 2018-19 marketing year, which was up 64.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the USDA.
The Wonderful Co of Los Angeles expects this new season to be a normal off-year with California volume down 200 to 250 millions pound from the past year. The company’s pistachio harvest runs from September to August each year.
The year ending August 3st was a record on-year crop, with good quality.
Pecan Shipments
U.S. pecan volume from October 2018 to September 2019 was about 221.2 million pounds, on a utilized in-shell basis, down 27 percent from the previous year, on overall reduced bearing acreage and lower yields.
Production is down across all 8 reported pecan-producing states, with the biggest losses in big producers, Georgia and Texas. Hurricane Michael in October 2018 affected Georgia production.
In other states, pecan production declines were down due to “off-year” production in an alternate-bearing cycle.
Walnut Shipments
The 2019 walnut crop is estimated at 630,000 tons — down 6.8 percent from 2018’s crop of 676,000 tons.
Walnut bearing acreage continued to trend upward, with 15,000 new acres coming into production this year, for a total of 365,000 bearing acres.
Prune Shipments
The 2019 California prune crop is forecast at 110,000 tons, up 38 percent from the previous 80,000 tons forecast in 2018. California ships 99 percent of U.S. prunes. Prune plums are harvested in August, but prunes are available year-round.
Date Shipments
Atlas Produce and Distribution of Bakersfield, CA reports the date crop in California endured a “cooler-than-normal” spring and summer, but this is not expected to affect volume. Harvest was completed this month and the company packs and ships the year around.
California’s Kern County citrus shipments are wrapping up, while new crops of vegetables will be starting soon. Meanwhile, California almonds look promising for the upcoming season. Finally, Black Gold Farms once again is shipping Texas potatoes.
For example, Grimmway Farms of Bakers will kick off its new carrot season with loadings of both conventional and organic carrots starting this week. The firms bi-color corn got underway a week or so ago, plus it’s organic potatoes started shipping in late April.
Kern Ridge Growers of Arvin now has carrot shipments, with bell peppers set to start by early June. Dan Andrews Farms of Bakersfield will get underway with watermelons in June, as well as cantaloupe and honeydew in July.
Sun World International is currently shipping grapes out of the Coachella Valley to be followed by Arvin grapes in early July.
Kern County carrots and vegetables – grossing about $6100 to Atlanta.
California Almond Shipments
California’s 2017 almond acreage is estimated at 1.33 million acres, up 7 percent from the 2016 acreage, which had 1.24 million acres. The almond harvest typically begins in August.
Of the total acreage, 1 million acres were bearing and 330,000 acres were non-bearing, with preliminary bearing acreage for 2018 estimated at 1.07 million acres. California has nearly 6,000 almond growers. Five California counties have 73 percent of the total bearing acreage: Kern, Fresno, Stanislaus, Merced and Madera.
The leading almond variety continues to be nonpareil, followed by monterey, butte, carmel and padre.
Texas Potato Shipments
Black Gold Farms, based in Grand Forks, ND is now shipping red potatoes from its operation in Pearsall, Tx. The growing and shipping operation, located Southwest of San Antonio, has been growing red potatoes in Pearsall since 2011, though its potato growing operation there started in 1992 with chipping potatoes,
Black Gold Farms is shipping from its Pearsall facility as well as from its Arbyrd, Mo., facility, with the Texas crop expected to ship through early June, when the Missouri crop will be ready.
Here’s a shipping outlook for dates and various nuts coming out of California.
A bumper crop of California date shipments is seen by some coming out the Southern California desert region, with yields reported to be 20 percent higher than last season.
Harvest got underway with the beginning of September. Among the major California date shippers are Hadley Date Gardens of Thermal, Atlas Produce and Distribution of Bakersfield, and Sunsweet Growers Inc. of Yuba City.
Walnut and Almond Shipments
California grows and ships nearly all walnuts in the U.S. and has 315,000 bearing acres due to the region’s mild climate and deep fertile soils providing ideal growing conditions.
California citrus shipments are getting back on track after days of rains. Meanwhile, weather is expected to have a significant impact of Salinas vegetable shipments, but not affect California almonds, nearly as much.
The effects of the rain in citrus groves about a week ago, which hinders harvest and shipments when the ground is too muddy, could have been worse. It helps we are talking citrus and not something more perishable like strawberries (See March 1st report). Of note as we’ve previously reported, orange shippers had a bigger-than-normal pre-Christmas loadings, shipping about 30 percent of crop before the holiday, compared to a normal 20-25 percent. This is expected to result in season ending shipments occurring earlier than usual.
While harvest and shipments have been significantly slowed down, with it being too muddy for heavy equipment, the citrus industry is estatic over the great improvements in the water supply. Even better, the excess rain has not created any quality-related issues – thus far.
Southern California oranges and specialty citrus – grossing about $3600 to Chicago.
Vegetable Shipments
Vegetable growers love the big rains that have recently occurred, but the trade off is plantings have been delayed in the Salinas Valley. This will be some shipping gaps, which will be felt even more because vegetable shipments from the California and Arizona deserts are going to end early than usual.
Not only are Salinas Valley spring vegetable shipments to be later this year, but there’s an excellent chance yields will be off due to wet-weather planting and generally adverse conditions. This of course, will translate into fewer vegetable shipments.
Imperial Valley and Yuma vegetables – grossing about $4600 to Atlanta.
Almond Shipments
Because of recent rains and storms in the San Joaquin Valley, some almond trees were blown down by strong winds recently. However, tree losses aren’t as bad as initially feared and optimism continues for good shipments when the season starts the latter part of August.
Mexican Grape Shipments
It’s a bit early, but initial estimates for the Mexican grape shipments are expected to be pretty much on time, which should mean fruit starting to cross the border at Nogales in late April.