As pecan harvest in North America has wrapped up the freezers in the US are filling up with tons of in-shell pecans in preparation for the upcoming year where demand is expected to outweigh this years harvest. Over the past decade efforts made by the US Pecan Growers Council has opened up new global markets for both in-shell and shelled pecans, causing an increase demand for the pecan nut. While the EU has long been an increasing export market for shelled pecans Asian markets look to be the most promising for the long term growth of the industry. Despite recent setbacks with the trade war, China is still expected to be the largest in-shell pecan buyer yet again. But the underlying issue for this year will be the limited number of pecans available on the global market this year. With the storm damage from Hurricane Michael wiping out an estimated 50 million pounds (22,700 metric tons) from the eastern harvest along with flooding in Texas and Oklahoma the North American pecan harvest will come up short this year, leaving cold storage pecan supplies scarce for the next months. Pecan shellers have been purchasing record quantities from Mexico in order to help fill gaps in the supply chain but this will not be enough fill the ever growing demand for pecans.