Domestic market updates

Cashews:

While we’ve seen some very active trade during the first week of the New Year, things seem to have calmed down a little this week. I’m not really referring to prices but it may ultimately affect prices as well. We’ve gotten used to a new trend that has become the norm…. prices ease with a nickel or a dime and everyone buys. Then prices move right back up and everyone withdraws and this keeps happening over and over again and again…

At this point, nobody is really believing that we have a chance of significant relief at least until new crop comes around. It’s also too early to know how the incoming crop will look like… will it be on time? Will it be a large crop? Will the quality be there? And the speculation goes on and on… If there’s one thing that we need to learn from the past 2 years, it’s that one cannot rely on all this speculation! Smart buyers are covering at least some of their May-Sep needs not to be caught with their pants down! These buyers are arguing that it pays to have product on hand even with the risk of having paid a few extra pennies rather than experiencing last year’s saga again! I personally couldn’t agree more with them, especially when considering that even if the market does drop I don’t believe it’ll be very significant until we pass the bottleneck period… and who knows when/if that will actually be!

Pecans:

This commodity is beyond confusing! Prices are sky high and will very likely sustain themselves for the remainder of the crop year. Although we’ve seen some desperate sellers out there (very few) that are willing to sell at somewhat below the market, I don’t think this will affect much and it’s definitely not across the board. Those offers are coming up sporadically and if you can find ‘em, grab ‘em! I’ve seen some reports predicting a down market and I beg to differ….

Walnuts:

January is usually one of the quietest months of the year, yet we’re still seeing a lot of interest coming in from all directions. Shipments are very strong and buyers are afraid of an additional price increase. Prices are still at a very comfortable level and our advice is to book all needs thru Aug/Sep if you haven’t yet.

Almonds:

The biggest losers out there are those people that decided that God decided to abandon California after taking care of them for a few thousand years J… Just remember how those panic stricken reporters were scaring the guts out of us with those historic drought articles (according to Trump it must have been CNN J). The almond growers loved it and took us for a good ride based on those reports. Now if you’re following the news, California is drowning in rain/snow. Reservoirs are filling up faster than ever, rivers are flooding many areas, and snow keeps accumulating on the mountain peaks.

On the other end, almonds shipments are strong again and buyers are not so hesitant to purchase. I would call this a sideways market with no significant changes on the horizon.