Earlier this week the CWB shipment report for the month of August was released, showing strong shipment figures with both shelled as inshell product 12% higher compared to August last year. The domestic market is a big contributor to these figures, as well as Japan whom showed at increase of 47% on shelled shipments compared to August last year. Looking at the total volume (carryover & receipts) of the 2021 season, minus shipments so far, the remaining supply should be just below 88.000 tons. The main share, if not all, of this volume seems to be committed. Physical shipments itself remain to be a challenge given the difficulties in terms of sea freight. The issues in terms of sea freight will play an important role during the (start) of the 2022 season as well, as pipelines to export markets are basically empty. Although it can be questioned how many buyers consider Chinese walnuts as an alternative to California, could this situation potentially open new doors for China as an exporter of walnuts, on both shelled as inshell bases. In the meantime are supplies in Eastern-Europe preparing themselves for the new season, first decent quantities of raw material are expected to be in by the end of this month. Overall the new crop looks promising, both quality as quantity wise.
