The South African Pecan harvest is all but complete, and despite a tumultuous market half way through the harvest season the crop is all but sold.

The last of the South African pecan harvest is trickling in and pecan growers are beginning to clean equipment and prepare for planting and orchard renovations that are typically done this time of year. The pecan harvest season started off as a normal season, however with the looming trade war between the US and China, the dynamics quickly changed. At the beginning of June In-shell pecan prices began to slide and by the end of June the prices had taken a $0.50 per pound nose dive. The main buyers of the South African pecan crop, China, had all but pulled out of the market and left pecan accumulators and processors wondering, what happened. Several US companies saw this as a buying opportunity and began to purchase small amounts of in-shell pecans. China of course did not stay out of the market too long and slowly began to purchase again. Fast forward to today, and the South African pecan crop is all but sold. There is estimated to be around 5 million pounds in storage with accumulators waiting to see if Oversize pecan prices will increase, which many believe they will. The overall South African pecan crop is estimated to be off by about 18% to 20% from original estimates. Earlier the crop was estimated to come in at around 46 million pounds, and currently estimates have the overall crop at just under 38 million pounds. While in-shell pecan prices did fall significantly in June, the free fall ended quickly, and pecan prices stabilized for the rest of the harvest. Now the US and China are watching prices and the North American pecan crop gets closer to harvest. In less than 2 months we will know exactly what affects the newly imposed tariffs will have on pecan prices this year.