December 1,2105-
Walnut Prices Collapse
Central Valley walnut prices have dropped from over $2 a pound last year,a record high, to only “$1.20 for the best quality nut if we are lucky” says Visalia walnut grower Sam Sciacca. “Right now the world has more supply than demand” shrugs Scaicca, noting that Chinese production of walnuts has grown in the past few years and their importing of US-grown walnuts has dropped.
“It’s not the high quality we have” says Sciacca, adding that the European market is still strong for US exports.
“The Chinese are taking our in-shell nuts, processing them and selling them back to us.”USDA says walnuts were averaging about 85 cents a pound back in 2009. By 2014, the average per-pound price had nearly doubled to $1.62 and up to over $2 per pound for south Valley nuts.
To compound the price issue California has produced a record crop this year and Sciacca expects it to be above 600,000 tons. Among other factors shipping delays caused by the port slowdown last winter have hurt.
The rapid decline in prices have hurt some processors too with Crisp Walnuts in Stratford in Kings County announcing they would restructure after a slew of lawsuits from growers over payment.“Unfortunately, recent sudden and drastic changes in the walnut market proved too damaging for our fledgling business to absorb. We’re therefore currently attempting to restructure, and we hope to serve the community again in some capacity in the future.” The company employs 35 at during its peak season. Besides over planting the high value of the US dollar is hurting all ag export sales.
Strong Dollar Hurts California Wine Grapes
Case in point – wine imports that hurt Central Valley wine grapes. Allied Grape Growers say bottled imports from the top wine producing countries are reported to be up by 5 percent. On the export side, the trending strength of the dollar continues to provide challenges in exporting California wines, while making imports more affordable to U.S. consumers and wine buyers. “Just since the beginning of last summer, the U.S. dollar has strengthened by over 20 percent to the euro, over 23 percent to the Chilean peso and by about 30 percent to the Australian dollar. In a time where we are long on much of California’s wine supply, a stronger dollar does not help us in our effort to move the product off-shore or to fight off competition within the U.S.”