News Archive

One of the things that sets the Almond Industry apart from all of the other tree nuts is the strength and proactive nature of the Almond Board of California.  Through their efforts, and those of many of its member growers (Blue Diamond, Wonderful, etc.), the board has established a set of quality standards, production practices and information systems that are accepted and used around the world.

Whether you want to believe the numbers or not, it is painfully obvious that the industry is severely short of product.  Based on the recently released Cold Storage figures, there are only 205.7 million pounds of pecans in inventory; the shortest January inventory since 2012.  Based on the APC’s recently released January Commitments numbers, of the 205.7 million pounds in inventory, 173.9 million pounds is committed.  With only 31.8 million pounds available for sale until next fall, one is hard pressed to explain why sheller’s continue to sell kernels for less than $5/lb. or why growers can’t get more than $3.30/point for their inshell.

Yesterday the USDA released two reports: the December Cold Storage Holdings and Pecan Crop production reports.

With respect to the Cold Storage Holdings report, the USDA reported that the industry had 129,069,000 million pounds (inshell basis) in Cold Storage at the end of December. Assuming that there are no changes to that figure in next month’s report, the industry is carrying the lowest inventory into January since 1992.