Nut Talk

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and a happy new year.

We look forward to a great 2016 and strengthening our business relationships with you.

Please find a quick market overview.

Cashews.

Unlike a lot of other commodities the Cashew market has been pretty stable in terms of pricing, there have been small adjustments here and there but no epic spikes or dips like Almonds and Pecans. We believe this will continue, only thing we anticipate is a good early crop out of Vietnam, so new crop should come in early March. We are seeing good quotes for 2^nd and 3^rd QTR a few cents cheaper from good packers. We advise you cover at least thru 2^nd  QTR and maybe even some of your 3^rd qtr needs not to run into any surprises that might come up….

Almonds.

Shipment report is out and shipments are down again! commitments are also down, while crop receipts are set to be high and the weather has been finally kind, with rainfall and snow packs forming. G-D has decided after years of favoring the farmers to look kindly now on the buyers, we advise to buy SPOT only and we look forward quoting you on all your needs!

Pecans.

Short crop, damage and disaster has contributed to these high prices along with buying from China (they are only buying pecans). Small pecan growers have been swallowed up by large national companies in desperation to get hold of product. Keep in mind before the crop damage this was meant to be an ON year, so the next year will be an OFF year which will only contribute to keeping pricing high and going higher. It seems like most growers will be chopping up halves to fill their pieces needs and in shell is also trading at record numbers. We expect to see prices stay sky high all the way thru the crop year.

Pistachios.

Not seeing any deals out there when at this time of year you normally do, few packers are even offering. Market is high and seems very stable.

Walnuts.

Market is soft, product is cheap, packers say this is the floor and point to record shipments, while we counter “huge new anticipated crop expected”.

Pine Nuts

Pricing has gone slightly down due to the currency exchange with a super strong dollar against the Chinese currency.

Bentzy Klein