Shippers and growers of almonds are worried about the price of almonds and the supply shortage. In California it’s estimated that there’s 800 million pounds.and carryover almond crop from the previous year. The new estimate is out for 2023-2024 with an estimated 2.6 billion pounds. crop. “Three decades ago, our highest yield that we had was 3.1 billion pounds. However, the main issue now is the huge amount of carry-in that the industry is having to deal with,” says Bikram Hundal of Custom Almonds LLC.

The updated estimate comes out for the 2023-2024 almond harvest with an estimated 2.6 billion pounds. crop.

What’s the reason for so much carry-in this year? “When the season kicked off there were issues with shipping as well as the general feeling from buyers wasn’t that they expected price increases,” says Hundal. “People weren’t selling, which led us to this. Buyers remain frightened and believe they are worried that California could lower the price further. They aren’t looking to purchase in a market that is declining. They would rather buy into the rising market.” He says buyers are there, it’s just the perceptions about pricing that are at issue.

“The cost doesn’t reflect inflation so return to growers is far from the break-even level. It’s quite bad,” says Hundal. The same way that growers across North America have seen this year, the cost of inputs has gone up dramatically.

The farmer is also worried about the crop’s quality and doesn’t feel positive about the crops due to the fact that “growers have seen their returns decrease throughout the years and quite certain farmers are trying to survive the tough times by cutting their costs for inputs, and avoiding now sprays and so on.,” he says. “However we’ll know what we can learn this week, once California will begin shaking the almond trees to full-throttle.”

Prices for retail remain very high.

Hundal believes the problem lies not just at the retail end. “The price is still expensive, but at wholesale the prices are at a low level. Retailers haven’t been inclined to reduce the prices they charge and this is the reason we’ve been urging them to change the price of this product. They must lower their prices,” Hundal says.

^{A team of Custom Almonds.}

Overall, the issue is affecting the outlook of sales for almonds. Hundal states that although it’s at this stage of the season, they usually can be sold for at least six months the product in advance, at present the almonds are only a month ahead. “Buyers are advised to keep buying since it’s the cheapest cost available,” he adds.

In terms of the current season, we are seeing an earlier begin to the season of around two to three weeks because of the cooler temperatures and rain that the state has experienced this year. “So the harvest will be busy by the time they finish. Then when it’s a dry year like it could be this year, it could influence the end of harvesting and the people may be in a hurry to complete it in deadline,” Hundal says, noting that he thinks California will harvest till November of this year.

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Bikram Hundal

Custom Almonds LLC

Tel: +1 (559)-346-8212

Office@sequoianut.com

www.customalmonds.com

Source: The Plantations International Agroforestry Group of Companies