Pistachios, Market Report, 06 June 2022
While the market has slowed down in the last couple of weeks, pistachio pricing remains stable for both current and new crop. Both buyers and sellers seem content to wait for an additional outlook for the 2022 California crop development. Also, it seems that most packers are fully sold for 2021 crops, as they cannot fit anymore into the production schedules due largely to shipping constraints.
Buyers have accepted this fact now and are waiting for 2022 crop news and opening pricing to begin making their new crop buying decisions.
The most recent industry consensus it that the 2022 crop will be more or less in line with last year’s 1.15-1.20 billion pounds.
This is a slightly different tone than the smaller 2022 California crop outlook of 1,036 billion pounds forecasted at previous month's INC. However, as mentioned earlier, the 2022 crop outcome is still highly dependent on nut fill and growing conditions from not until harvest. While the market has taken a breather, for the time being, there is likely to be a void in coverage coming out of both India for Diwali (October 24th) and China for Chinese New Year (January 22nd, 2023). Both markets will need to take coverage sooner rather than later, and we expect this to lead to increased activity and potentially firm pricing in the coming month.
