The Almond Board of California has released the Almonds Position Report for June with shipments of +186.6 million pounds compared to last year’s record 278.5 million pounds for a decrease of 33 percent. It had been widely expected that the shipments would be down compared to last year’s record shipments for June.
| Million Pounds | Percent | |
| Domestic | 60.8 | -4.8% |
| Export | 125.7 | -41.4% |
YEAR TO DATE SHIPMENTS
Now at +2.377 billion pounds compared to last year’s 2.464 billion pounds for a decrease of 3.51 percent.
CROP RECEIPTS
Now at 2.568 billion pounds compared to the 2021 crop of 2.914 billion pounds for a decrease of 11.87 percent.
MARKET
Over the past month, certain availability has become limited as many packers are near to being sold out. Some items have increased in price while other items have remained flat. New sales at the beginning of June were strong while then end of the month began to slow. Overall Total New Sales in June were at +219.6 million pounds with a current crop at 154.6 million pounds and 64.9 million pounds for new crop. The industry is now sold for current crop and carry in at 83.6 percent compared to last year at this time of 87.1 percent.
New Crop Prices are 10-20 cents per pound higher than the current crop, so buyers have been focusing more on the current crop than new crop purchases. All eyes are now on the Objective Crop Estimate which will be announced on July 12, 2023. The Subjective Estimate was announced in May at 2.5 billion pounds.
TREES
The New crop is developing nicely. The trees are healthy with lots of new green growth and shoots on the tops of the trees. Sizing on the kernels continues to improve and we will see larger overall nut sizes this coming crop. We do expect harvest to start 1-2 weeks later than normal due to the cooler and wetter bloom and Spring weather we had.
OUTLOOK
The July shipments are appearing to be robust compared to last year’s shipments.