January Review - California Walnut Market Report & Crop Update

Considering the severe difficulties with shipping delays in the month of January, California shippers will consider this shipment report as good news. There were over 30 ships anchored off Southern California and over 10 ships anchored off Oakland as of last week, waiting for their turn at their respective ports.

KEY FACTS:

• JANUARY SHIPMENTS: Walnut shipments in January 2021 versus inshell equivalent shipments in January 2020 were + 63,077 tons in 2021 compared to 61,986 tons last year for an increase of +1.8 %!!
• SEASON TO DATE SHIPMENTS: Shipments are up +11 percent at +399,153 tons for the 2020 crop year compared to 355,483 tons at this level in 2020.
• CROP: Receipts of +783,754 tons reported as of 31 December 2020. For the 2020 harvest, this will be the final crop sum. The estimate for the crop was 780,000 tons. This suggests that the real crop was bigger than the forecast.
• DOMESTIC/USA: January 2021 shipments on an inshell equivalent were down -21.9 percent compared to 2020 shipments on an inshell equivalent.
• EXPORT: January 2021 shipments on an inshell equivalent increased + 11.3 percent compared with 2020 shipments on an inshell equivalent.

The new standard for several weeks in a row has been several vessel omissions, with no real end in sight. Despite these delays, the walnut industry nevertheless managed to raise exports by 11.3 percent. Turkey/Morocco/Israel/Pakistan would ship more than double what they had in the previous year.