As the pecan harvest in South Africa, Australia, Chile, Argentina, and a few other areas gets underway, local accumulators are seeing the Chinese buyers playing the market more than in previous years.

China has been a big buyer of pecans for more than 10 years now with each subsequent year, Chinese pecan buyers buying more than the previous year. Pecan accumulators and traders around the globe have become somewhat dependent upon the Chinese pecan buyers looking to the buyers to set the price, and as history has shown us, Chinese traders will always use this to their advantage. China has definitely become savvier about purchasing. Currently, pecan traders in South Africa report that Chinese buyers are offering lower than expected prices, looking for deals, and its working to an extent. Currently in-shell pecan prices to China have fallen slightly, but the demand for shelled pecans from the EU and others is continuing to rise. The demand for pecans around the world continues to grow along with the supply, and industry officials say the demand continues to outpace the supply.