Walnuts July shipment report

The California Walnut Board released the July shipment report on Friday. Total shipments were 27,532 tons, up 3% from last June shipments of 26,739 tons. Domestic shipments were up 11.49% and exports were down 10.57%. Domestic shipments YTD are 223,591 tons, up 15.49% and exports YTD totals 425,903 tons, up 6.64%. Total YTD shipments are now at 649,494 tons, up 9.53% from this stage last year.

Using historical averages for August from 2016-2018, the estimated carryout is 57,584 tons.

Since the last report, and as discussed in our market update last week, the subjective packer estimate for the 2019 crop came out at 691,000 tons. This comes from a range of packer expectations between 680,000 and 700,000 tons. Note this is nothing official, and the official NASS estimate will be released in a few weeks. Some business has been done on new crop, JL Chandler inshell trading from $1.20-1.25/lb. FAS CA basis. Middle East seemed to been the most active, with India, Turkey and Europe feeling out the market as well.