Sep 10, 2020
The Almond Board of California has published a report which shows global shipments of almonds continue to increase as the industry sail across tough times.
Despite challenging trade environment at present, California almond growers are head-on with the production steadily growing crops at record or almost-record levels year on year that means the industry must constantly work to grow and expand the existing export markets and continue to to develop more demand in those regions, along with that also keeping an eye for new opportunities at the international level.
The year 2019-2020 of the corona outbreak, together with China’s continued exim tariffs, have sustained problems for the almond growers looking to move their nuts from California ports to export markets.
According to the export analysis, during the 2019-2020 crop year, California produced 2.55 billion pounds of almonds. Nearly 1.6 billion pounds were exported, while domestic shipments accounted for 774 million pounds. This represents nearly parallel growth between the two compared to 2018-2019, when domestic shipments grew 4.5 percent and exports grew five percent. The Company gives credits to this continued growth to the industry’s thoughtful investment in nutrition research, as well as development and expansion of the market globally.
“One of the things that I first noticed when I joined the Almond Board four years ago was the passion and pride staff have in helping grow this industry,” Vice President of Global Market Development Emily Fleischmann states in the report, “and that fire continues. It’s what has helped our teams launch innovative new campaigns like ‘Do You Almond’ in the UK this past year and what helps almonds remain the number one nut in new product introductions for 10 years running.”
Forthcoming partnerships include a campaign with Olympian Kerri Walsh Jennings, a brand-new campaign in France and the ABC’s first digital program in India.
India received 256 million pounds of almonds from the U.S. in 2019-2020, followed by Spain (193 million), Germany (134 million) and China (99 million). Global trade tensions with China have changed the landscape of priority markets, according to the report.
“Five years ago, China was our second-largest export destination. It stayed as the third-largest market for several years, surpassed only by the strong growth of the Indian market,” said Julie Adams, vice president of Global Technical and Regulatory Affairs for the ABC.
“Starting in April 2018, we saw the impact of the trade war, which took almonds from a 10 percent tariff to the current 55 percent tariff,” Adams said. “Over the last two years, shipments to China/Hong Kong dropped 25percent in crop year 2018-19 and another 23 percent in crop year 2019-20, with Australia benefiting.”
Even though China has dropped to the fourth position of top U.S. export destinations, the country is still key to building demand for expanded crop production. Adams cited that many trade issues and policies take a long time to resolve and reach proper conclusion, but it is still essential to engage in positive interactions with difficult markets so that a solution can be found quickly and favourably.
Market reports reflects global appeal among customers and consumers worldwide that can be seen clearly in the almond industry’s regional shipments. For example, India and China have historically been the primary destination for in-shell markets, but now India has absorbed much of those shipments.
In India, almonds are the number one import at $732 million, accounting for 40 percent of all U.S. exports in India. In the United Arab Emirates, almonds are the number one import and account for around 23 percent of total U.S. exports.
“There are so many growth opportunities around the globe,” Adams said. “For years, the Middle East and Africa were a small share of exports, but now they represent almost 20 percent”.
While acknowledging the many challenges facing California almonds, Adams also believes “the opportunities are limitless.”