February Almond Position Report

The Almond Board of California has announced the February Almond Position Report with shipments of  +149.3 million pounds compared to last year +160.0   million pounds for a decrease of -6.7%.

February Shipments:

-          Domestic shipments were +26.1%    +54.47 million lbs

-          Export shipments were -18.8%    +94.87 million lbs

-          Overall -6.7%     +149.3 million lbs

YEAR TO DATE SHIPMENTS:  +1.219 billion pounds compared to 1.176  billion pounds last year for a +3.66% year to date.

CROP RECEIPTS: The crop receipts are now at +1.99 billion pounds.

BLOOM: The bloom has basically finished.  Nonpareil had good weather, however, it did endure a long bloom and the initial report are the NP bloom was spotty.  Early pollinators had excellent weather overall.  The late pollinators did endure some rain at the tail end of the bloom which will be a concern for the Butte/Padre, as they were at 50% bloom when the rains occurred in some areas of the valley.

RAIN:  California has received a few nice periods of rain showers during the past 15 days to bring our annual rain fall up to approximately 45% of its normal levels for year to date in the Sacramento area.  We are at 36% or our normal full season rainfall totals.  We are still in a drought situation which will become a bigger issue in May/June/July when growers are required to make heavy irrigations.

MARCH SHIPMENTS: We expect the March shipments to be similar to slightly down compared to last year.

SPANISH BLOOM:  Spain has had an outstanding bloom condition and the trees are set to make a potential record crop of 60-70,000 tons.  As you will recall, this past year Spain had one of its worst crops in recent years only achieving 27,000 tons.  Thus the trees in Spain were well rested and are ready to produce this year.

PRICES: Almond prices have decrease approximately 10 cents per lbs on selected items during the past 4 weeks, as California started to receive a few rain showers to assist with its drought situation.

This is a good news for the buyers... at least until another "crisis" occurs to drive the market pricing through the roof!