Walnut Report 11.06.24

The May 2024 Walnut inshell shipments were 11.392  million lbs.  which is down 3.9% from 11.851 million lbs. in May 2023. Inshell for the 2023/24 crop season is up 26.8% vs. season. The May Walnut kernel shipments were also down, at 47.534 million lbs. versus 53.751 million lbs. in May 2023. Kernel shipments for the 2023/24 season are up 14% vs. last season.

California has, for the most part, has run out of walnuts to sell. There are still offers to be had, but only for kernels, extremely limited, and at elevated prices compared to the levels we have seen for the entirety of the 2023 crop marketing season. This is because Chileans started to realise that the crop was short and increased their prices, which drove buyers to California - this has led to the situation we are in now.

New crop sales are starting for California walnuts. While buyers may have enjoyed last year’s .70 per lbs. CIF JL Chandler, it was not sustainable for growers. And now we are going to start seeing the consequences, orchards have been pulled out and crop sizes will be reduced. The coming crop is expected to be between 675,000 tons and 750,000 tons (2023 crop was 820,000 tons) but Chile has a short crop and should be sold out well before CA starts the harvest. With a reduced crop, CA can demand higher prices and be ok with the reduced market share in heavy inshell markets. However, pipelines will be empty for walnuts at the end of the year and there will be demand for CA walnuts despite the large Chinese crop.

via Summit Tree Nuts