Pecan farmers in the southeastern United States are gearing up for full swing harvest. Most pawnee growers in the region have begun harvest with a few money makers coming off the trees as well. Cape fear, Desirable, Stuart and most other varieties in the Southeast are beginning to open up. Many growers in the region say they are already in full harvest or plan to begin this week.
Pecan growers in the west have also begun harvest on pawnee and early varieties, with most other varieties beginning to open in the orchards. West Texas and the mesilla valley, where most of the western varieties come from have not yet begun to harvest.
Mexican pecan growers have been moving fairly large quantities of earlier varieties; a fairly large amount of natives have already been shipped to the US, and China has been buying large quantities of wichita.
The demand for pecans on the farm level seems to be significantly higher than last year at the same time, as many buyers were hesitant to make purchases while the trade war continued to escalate making the pecan market slightly unstable.
While the trade war is still ongoing, the market seems to have settled on much firmer pricing than last year, while demand has continued to inch slightly upward over the last year both domestically and abroad.
The trade war of course did have a short term negative impact on farm level pecan prices in certain locations, however, with a very limited global supply capacity, the trade war merely shifted purchasing habits among buyers, and ultimately the flow of pecans from the producer to the consumer.
The USDA has begun releasing the weekly pecan reports with good information about pecan prices and quantities collected at farm and accumulator levels of the supply chain, along with Mexican pecan imports into the US. Click here to view the latest “USDA Pecan Report”.
The American Pecan Council has also released the year end inventory report along with their monthly “Pecan Position Reports”. Click here to view the latest “Pecan Position Report”
