The pecan industry around the globe is experiencing enormous growth, that apparently not even a trade war can slow down. With a more global marketplace than ever before, pecans are managing navigating around trade barriers into consumers shopping carts.
The Asia pacific region is seeing big growth in the nut snack food industry, particularly in pecans. According to a recent study presented by Three Squirrels Food Company, an international snack food company based in China, Asia is seeing large growth in healthy snack foods.
The American Pecans is now publishing regular data for the pecan industry showing monthly exports to foreign countries as well as domestic consumption, and both are continuing to climb. The EU is also experiencing increased growth in the pecan industry with pecan imports rising in countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The largest growth seems to be right here at home the domestic market. Retail sales of pecans continue to rise and last year at this same time, American Pecans were trending significantly higher than all other nuts in the media and the consumers mind.
Harvest season is traditionally the busiest time of year for pecan sales, but that is slowly trending further into the year with sales continuing to climb further into the spring and summer months of the year. As the American Pecan changes its image from just a pie and ice cream ingredient to a healthy snack food and ingredient, consumers are demanding pecans throughout the year and not just at the holidays.
The American pecan industry has projected a growth rate of around 6% per year but demand may currently be outpacing this growth. Pecan imports from Mexico to the US hit all time highs last year finishing the year at just over 293 million pounds* imported to US shellers. This year’s imports are now outpacing last year by more than 6%.
When comparing pecan imports to date. Last year, pecan shellers had imported +14 million pounds of in-shell and +31 million pounds of shelled pecans totaling +76 million pounds. Currently for this year pecan shellers have imported +4 million pounds and in-shell and +38 million pounds of shelled pecans totaling +80 million pounds of pecans. Overall the current imports are 6.2% higher than the same time last year, indicating increased demand here at home. *
While harvest here in the US is getting close to the midway point, the market could see an uptick in pricing as the eastern crop has come up shorter than originally expected. The western crop is expected to put good numbers this year, hopefully keeping the cold storage full enough to supply the market.
*C2i – Converted to In-shell using a 50% meat yield conversion rate.
