This years walnut crop is selling faster than last year at this time with exports up 6.58% and domestic sales up about 0.6% says the California Walnut Commission.
While some parts so the world are taking in fewer California walnuts, the Middle East for example is down 18% and Europe is down a whopping 70% – Asia is up 56% this year to date with China up 102%. In-shell tonnage shipped to China stands at 30 million pounds compared to 22 million lbs this time last year.
This year’s crop is larger than last year estimated to be 470,000 short tons compared to 461,000 tons – the second largest crop on record. That will be confirmed in February 2013.
Walnuts are now the fourth largest state ag export and big in Central California.Walnuts were a $140 million crop in Tulare County last year.
Helping the state’s 4000 walnut growers sell more overseas is a declining dollar vs the Chinese currency. The yuan is already up about 1.2 percent against the dollar this year following a 4.7 percent advance in 2011. A Bloomberg news survey estimated it will climb another 1.3 percent by the end of 2013, according to the median estimate of 26 analysts.
That adds up to nearly a 7.5% advantage for US products being sold to China by the end of next year vs 2011 with the state’s big 3 nut crops enjoying another good year.
This week US ag secretary Tom Vilsack pointed to the health benefits of eating California nuts. ”Vilsack’s great-aunt in Iowa had a thing for almonds. “She believed that if she consumed seven almonds a day, she would avoid cancer,” the nation’s agriculture secretary said in a phone interview Wednesday. “She lived to be 93.” says a Bee report.
The Bee continues -“I think the best export days are ahead for this industry,” Vilsack said. “There’s just a tremendous opportunity.”
U.S. exports of almonds and other tree nuts will hit a record $7 billion next year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture projected last month. That would double the figure for 2009.
Almost all of those nuts will come from California, where almonds were the top farm export in 2010 at $2.4 billion, according to state figures. Walnuts and pistachios made the top six.”