The November Position Report was released Tuesday December 10th. Total shipments for the month came in at 235.90 million pounds. This is down 0.7% from last year which holds the November shipment record of 237.63 million pounds. Export shipments were 175.19 million pounds and set a new export record for the month of November. Domestic shipments came in at 60.70 million pounds which is down 5.5% from this time last year. Overall shipments for the month did not move the needle either direction since they were so close to last year.
The 2019 year to date crop receipts are now 2,082,856,881 pounds which is up 4.84% from this time last year. Buyers now feel they have confirmation the 2.2 billion pound objective forecast was incorrect and the actual crop size will land somewhere around 2.40 to 2.45 billion pounds.
Movement within the market has been very slow following the Thanksgiving holiday. Buyers have used the stagnant market and the perception that the crop will end up being a decent size to drive pricing down. Following the 2019 Almond Conference we have seen pricing start to slip anywhere between $.05 to $.10 per pound. We will see what the next few weeks bring, but with the Christmas and New Year holidays approaching it will most likely be after the first of the year before the market starts to see significant movement again.
Happy Holidays to our HWA Growers, Customers, and your families. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.
