Almonds: organic farmers thinking about giving up
October 1, 2024 at 11:49 AM ,
Der AUDITOR
Exports up in Spain
Spain has closed the 2023/2024 almond season with exports ranging 8% higher than in 2022/2023. At 11,812 mt monthly exports also stood 35% higher than the 8,764 mt recorded in July 2023. France, Germany and Italy are the most important export destinations by far for Spain. While exports to France and Italy rose by 5-6%, shipments to Germany flatlined. Shipments to Portugal and the Netherlands increased sharply, whereas the opposite is the case for shipments to the UK.
|
Almond exports, Spain (mt) |
|||
|
Destination |
2022/23 |
2023/24 |
Diff |
|
France |
30,776 |
32,550 |
5.8% |
|
Germany |
27,862 |
28,002 |
0.5% |
|
Italy |
22,038 |
23,106 |
4.8% |
|
Portugal |
4,717 |
6,690 |
41.8% |
|
Netherlands |
4,183 |
5,525 |
32.1% |
|
UK |
5,626 |
5,024 |
-10.7% |
|
Poland |
4,661 |
4,473 |
-4.0% |
|
Belgium |
4,081 |
3,937 |
-3.5% |
|
Turkey |
2,889 |
2,732 |
-5.4% |
|
Switzerland |
2,614 |
2,697 |
3.2% |
|
Others |
23,500 |
28,686 |
22.1% |
|
Total |
132,947 |
143,422 |
7.9% |
|
Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade, Spain, 01/08-31/07 |
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Organic almonds lose 30% in value
Prospects for this year’s crop are far from encouraging in Spain. News from the fields is that yields are highly disappointing. Rains in spring along with the excessive heat and severe drought in southeast Spain prompted leading agricultural organisations to revise the estimates downwards by 20-30% in the region. Most recent national production estimates ranged at 122,304 mt, which is 8% up on last year’s 113,152 mt.
Prices are also a matter of contention. Although Spain is the leading producer and exporter of almonds in Europe and ranks third in global production after the USA and Australia, the country also heavily relies on US imports, which weighs on prices, while producers are struggling with rising production costs. Good news may be that the prices for conventional almonds range 30% higher than last year’s historic lows, which is a great help for farmers. Yet, as local media highlight the prices for organic almonds have not recovered. They have, in fact, suffered three seasons of decline thereby losing more than 30% in value. High production costs and a lack of support are prompting many farmers to consider abandoning organic almonds altogether and returning to conventional varieties.
Too hot in California
As market giant Olam reports autumn has refused to bring cooler weather to California. Persisting hot weather conditions have instead sped up harvesting and drying. Although the crop will certainly be bigger in size than last year’s rather late crop, moisture levels are below average, which will bring down the weight. With two months into the harvest season the picture is rather confusing as volumes are up in some areas but down in others. Questions are being raised in how far the crop size will meet the official production estimate of 2.8 billion pounds. This has prompted growers to hold back sales past December until the situation can be better assessed.
At 168 million pounds shipments ranged below expectations in the first month of the season. They also dipped by 21% as compared with the 212 million pounds shipped in August 2023. Although this indicates that carry-outs are low and prompted prices to firm, it is certain that supplies will exceed last year’s. Yet, new crop sales are going well for growers and there presently is little chance that they will back down from current price levels. As production lines are well filled for October it is also probable that new sales will not ship until November. This may give the market some support. In addition, a port strike may hit the east coast in October, which may disrupt exports.
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