Record Almond crops cause price increases - why? - Oct 25, 2012

Here's another example of how our market is so susceptible to trends and changes in other industries where we have little or no control.

Over the past couple of months we've seen pressure on the price and availability of Almond Oil, which has led to an investigation into the cause. Alarmed we were to find out that this year's Californian almond crop was predicted to be a record high and yet our prices were trending up! California produces around 80% of the world's almonds so has an influential role in global supply. Statistics produced by NASS (National Agricultural Statistics Service) show almost 2.10 billion meat pounds (950 million kilo) will be harvested in 2012, up around 5% on 2011. Although conditions haven't been perfect, and some regions have suffered, this year's harvest has been supplemented by a greater area of trees bearing fruit - around 780,000 acres.

The quality of almond is based on the average weight of the kernel and this year 99.1% of all nuts were of food grade standards resulting in more nuts going into the food chain to meet a growing demand. Almond Oil is produced using the 'rejected' nuts, but this year's quality harvest has caused a 10% loss in the total nuts going into the oil production markets.

So this time it hasn't been poor crops, lower yields, political instability or natural disasters, it's a result of improvements made to produce better quality nuts for the food chain, resulting in less nuts going into the oil supply stream. Sometimes you just can't win!

If Sweet Almond Oil is a critical ingredient for your product, please talk to us about ensuring supply continuity during the first half of 2013. As always abp has taken the necessary steps to ensure we remain in stock and competitively priced by staying ahead of these dynamic market conditions.

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