Walnut Industry Expects Larger Crop

The walnut industry has to extend a big thanks to the USA market. USA shipments carried June shipments, and that was mainly due to the shipping of USDA purchases made a couple of months ago. Export markets were down fairly big, except for Japan and Korea kernel shipments. Suppliers and buyers alike will happily put the 2022 crop behind them, as low prices and sub-par quality lasted the entire season. New crop sales have begun, although on an extremely limited basis.

2023 Crop: At this point, and it is early, signs point to a larger crop than the 2022 crop. A crop of 800,000 tons remains a possibility, however, California has had a recent string of heatwaves after a cool beginning to the summer. We are expected to see multiple days this weekend above 105 degrees in parts of the valley, which doesn’t bode well for walnut trees. Last year, a 10-day long heatwave of over 110 degrees at the end of August severely affected the walnut crop quality. Hopefully, with some cooperation from Mother Nature, we can avoid a long period of severe heat this year.

June shipments: The June 2023 Walnut shipments were +53,469 tons in 2023 versus 47,862 tons in June 2022 on an in-shell equivalent, for an increase of 11.1%

Season-to-date shipments: The industry has shipped a total of 686,117 tons for the 2022 crop, compared to 624,546 tons at this point for the 2021 crop. This is an increase of 9%.

Crop: The final crop receipts for 2022 crop are 747,870 tons. The NASS estimate for the 2022 walnut crop is 720,000 tons.

Domestic/USA: June 2023 shipments versus 2022 shipments on an in-shell equivalent are up 41.3%

Export: June 2023 shipments versus 2022 shipments on an in-shell equivalent were down -20%.

Key Markets-March 2023 vs. March 2022

Import/Export Statistics

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