The Almond Board of California has released the Almond Position Report with shipments of +186.6 million pounds compared to 169.4 million pounds last year for an increase of +10.2 percent reported by Summit Premium Tree Nuts.
| Million Pounds | Percent | |
| Domestic | 56.52 | -1.1% |
| Export | 130.14 | +15.9% |
Year to date shipments
Shipments are now at +2.564 billion pounds compared to last year 2.633 billion pounds for an -2.63 percent change.
CROP RECEIPTS
Crop receipts are now at 2.571 billion pounds compared to last year at 2.922 billion pounds for a -12.01 percent change.
MARKET
The market for almonds has made some adjustments during the past month. The Objective Crop Estimate coming out at 2.6 billion pounds was slightly higher than what many industry experts had been predicting, resulting in softer almond prices over the past four weeks. Prices decreased about 10 cents per pound on many items for current and new crop. With the lower prices in the market, we have seen a surge in purchasing taking place, particularly in the first ten days of August. India has been the most active in buying new crop inshell for September and October shipments. Middle East has cleaned up much of the smaller-sized NPX and IND X current crops at affordable prices. The domestic USA market has been participating in new crop purchases as well as China on Inshell. Europe is continuing to purchase primarily current crops at attractive levels and some new crops as well.
The Crop year for 2022 is officially closed. Our ending carry out is now at 791 million pounds. The 22 Crop plus carry-in is now sold at 86.8 percent. During July the industry sold 191 million pounds, of which were 108 million pounds of old crop and 82 million pounds of new crop. The new crop sales were heavy for India, as the Inshell demand has been strong in the past month. As a whole, the industry is slightly less sold on new crops at this time, as growers and packers preferred to focus on finishing the sales on the 2022 crop and they were not motivated by these low new crop prices, as most growers will lose money based on these price levels.
HARVEST
The Harvest is underway!!! Trees started shaking one week ago. the first loads are arriving at Hullers/Shellers now. Hullers/Shellers will slowly start up next week and by the following week ramp up to 24 hours 7 days per week. It is to early for any reports from the field with regards to quantity and quality. We do know kernel sizes will be much larger this year than the past few years. With the larger sizes expected, there are few offers for smaller sized kernels at this time on new crop.
CURRENCY/ECONOMY
A Euro is at 1.10 US Dollars and Indian Rupee is at 82.30 to the 1 US Dollar. Interest rates remain strong, inflation impacting markets, War continues, and China’s Exports are off. Consumers appear to be more conservative and frugal in their purchasing patterns. And India is eating Almonds.
OUTLOOK
We expect August Almond shipments to be similar to last year based on the current data.
Source: Summit Premium Tree Nuts