Pine nuts: Russia’s tariffs fail to impress EU buyers
November 21, 2024 at 12:30 PM ,
Der AUDITOR
Suppliers urge customers to buy
Official news sites in China are emphasising that abundant pine nut supplies are available this season. Processors in Meihekou in China’s Jilin province, where around 80% of the country’s pine nuts are produced, have been busy buying and drying raw nuts in recent weeks. They reckon that 80,000 mt of pine cones will be processed here. In May, the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council also estimated China’s in-shell production at 80,000 mt. In addition to this, news from China has it that production has doubled in parts of Afghanistan with suppliers here eager to export to neighbouring China. Contrary to this, the INC expected a 47% reduction in output to in Afghanistan in May.
In Turkey, suppliers are urging their customers to act as prices are on the rise due to shortfalls in production. According to INC estimates Turkey’s crop was, however, initially only expected to decline by 2% to 5,3000 mt as compared with last year. Local prices range at TRY 1,250/kg.
As Interfax reports Russia imposed an export duty for unshelled pine nuts in April to boost local processing. In April the duty stood at 50% and no less than EUR 160/mt for. Yet a reduced duty of 25% and no less than EUR 80/mt currently applies for 1 August 2024 to 31 July 2025. Expectation is that Russia’s output will more than triple to 20,000 mt this year.
Russia’s strategy fails in EU
As pine nuts are mainly harvested in September and October and importers within the EU buy at least 50% of the required volumes in the fourth quarter in time to meet demand for Christmas and winter the EU’s official import statistics for shelled pine nuts, which the bloc mainly imports, as of September cast a light on how demand is evolving in 2024/2025. At 1.851 mt total imports have risen by 2% as compared with the same period last year in terms of volume but fall short of the 1.942 mt imported in 2022. In terms of value imports have risen more sharply as they stand 14% higher than last year at EUR 32.933 million (USD 34.661 million) , which however also fall short of the EUR 51.111 million (USD 53.793 million) spent two years ago.
Imports from China, which presently supplies 80% of the EU’s total imports, have risen continuously in the past three years. Despite the crop being smaller in Turkey this year, imports from this producing country are 4% up and have also risen steadily in the past three year. Russia’ attempts at boosting local processing have failed to lift demand for shelled pine nuts in the EU this season so far. Shelled pine nut imports have instead plummeted by 37% since last year. For inshell pine nuts (HS Code 08029100) imports from Russia have even plummeted to 512 kg as opposed to the 2,104 mt registered in September to November 2023. Within the EU Germany is the leading importer accounting for 42% of the volumes imported, followed by the Netherlands with 18% and Italy with 17%.
|
EU pine nut imports (kg) |
||||
|
Country |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
Diff. (23/24) |
|
China |
1,210,279 |
1,384,937 |
1,497,534 |
8.1% |
|
Turkey |
138,940 |
199,262 |
206,964 |
3.9% |
|
Russia |
528,173 |
203,929 |
128,932 |
-36.8% |
|
Mongolia |
40,000 |
10,000 |
20,000 |
100.0% |
|
Kazakhstan |
- |
29,188 |
19,970 |
-31.6% |
|
Pakistan |
18,202 |
13,940 |
3,001 |
-78.5% |
|
UK |
4,958 |
4,610 |
72 |
-98.6% |
|
New Zealand |
- |
- |
4,048 |
- |
|
Afghanistan |
1,454 |
500 |
500 |
0.0% |
|
EU |
41 |
1,001 |
708 |
-29.3% |
|
Others |
125,827 |
12,652 |
18,085 |
42.9% |
|
Total |
1,942,828 |
1,847,473 |
1,881,841 |
1.9% |
|
DG TAXUD Customs Surveillance, provisional data |
||||
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