USDA Announces Newly Elected American Pecan Council Members; 2015 US Pecan Consumption Down 9.3%
October 26, 2016
This morning the USDA announced the results of the recently concluded election to seat industry representatives to the newly established American Pecan Council. Congratulations to the industry, and those elected to the Board, as the industry takes another step forward. Wasting no time, the first meetings are already being scheduled for early November. As one might imagine, the Board has its work cut out for it as they still need to appoint two additional Board members, decide on a location for their headquarters, set up a bank account, hire a full time staff, develop and disseminate assessment forms and much more. A list of the elected Board members and their alternates can be found on the 'Presentations/Articles' page of this website. Again, congratulations.
As for the 2016 crop, with the recent release of the USDA 2016 Pecan Crop estimate, as well as the September Cold Storage holdings, the 2016/2017 supply situation shapes up as follows:
2016 Carry-In 130,007,180
2016 US Crop (USDA est.) 262,700,000
Mexican Imports (NPSA est.) 200,000,000
Total (estimate) 592,707,000*
*Note: 2015 Total Supply – 591.7 million pounds
Based on the above figures, not only was worldwide pecan consumption down 10.6% last year, US domestic consumption was down 9.3%. While all of the losses overseas can be attributed to reduced inshell purchases by China, the same cannot be said for the US market. Due to near record 2015/2016 pecan prices, buyers opted for lower priced alternatives; a situation that will be worse this year. When one considers that almonds are currently $3/lb lower than pecans, walnuts $3 to $4/lb lower, and that a larger portion of China’s early inshell purchases are having to come out of the Mexican crop due to the delayed US harvest, what looks like a tight supply now could quickly change.
