July 2020 Position Report

Dear HWA Growers,

The July 2020 Position Report was released Tuesday August 11th. This report put a huge stamp on 2019 with shipments and sales coming in well above expectation to end the year on a good note.

The 2019 final crop receipts settled in at 2.551 billion pounds. This is an increase of 12.41% over this time last year. Many in the industry were expecting to see a final carryout around 475 million pounds. The strong July shipments brought the actual carryout down to 446 million pounds and makes our total estimated supply for the 2020 crop year 3.446 billion pounds.

Total shipments for the month were 180.13 million pounds. This is an increase of 16.8% over last year and set a new shipment record for July. While this was a huge jump, let us keep in mind that inventories were at an all-time low last year and shipments could have been higher if product was available. Export shipments were 111.98 million pounds, which is up 22.6% from last year. Domestic shipments came in at 68.15 million pounds, up 8.4% from last July.

Despite all the good news in this month’s report it looks like pricing will remain relatively flat in the short term. New crop sales now total 696 million pounds which is up 98% when compared to the 352 million pounds sold at this time last year. While sales look strong when compared to last year, we still have a long road ahead of us to move the projected 2020 record crop. Due to current market prices the industry has seen very little participation to date from quote/call growers. It’s understandable that everyone is waiting to see if prices will go up, at this point in the season growers may start needing cashflow and if a large percentage start looking for sales at the same time, it could exceed the buyers’ demand and once again push down prices. If you have any interest in sales please reach out to your Grower Reps.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to your Grower Representatives.