CatZinfo – Dried Fruits

After the election of Mr. Trump a few things changed in the currencies. The dollar firmed by another 2% whereas the Turkish Lira lost considerable ground and facing an all-time low of 3,39 making Turkish products more competitive. Busy times for the spot traders: it seems a lot of products are in short supply: bananachips, walnuts, tropical fruits are hard to get. Strong demand all over with firmer pricing for most products in spite of some good crops.

Dried Fruits

Apricots

Due to the weak Turkish currency we see export prices in dollars become more attractive. All sizes are well available, but we also see export figures increase due to these more attractive pricing. If we continue on this basis for sure the market will turn. We already see some firming for the natural apricots, as rains during harvesting and drying has caused some damages on the fruits, which especially on the natural apricots is devastating.

Apples

With the first arrivals of new crop within the coming days, we see the prices for apples in China increase. This is the usual pattern, as for later shipments product from the cold stores is needed, which obviously is more expensive. The stocks in Europe are rather low, so we see a somewhat firmer market for spot material.

Banana chips

As we ever have seen the real meaning of the word ‘shortage’, we can have a look at the situation for the bananachips. Shipments are minimal and the pipelines in Europe are close to empty. Spot material has changed hands already several times and new arrivals do not even touch the warehouses of the importers as they are sold still afloat. Needless to say prices are still firm and the strong US$ is not helping in this respect. For time being we expect this firm market to last at least till spring 2017. The Asian festivals will have passed and new production may enter the market.

Cranberries

Unchanged with attractive prices, waiting for the news stocks will finally become more manageable.

Currants

A somewhat disappointing crop in Greece has moved prices upwards. Greek exporters think to have a valuable product in their hands and trying to hold the market short by ‘reluctantly’ offering. So far they are successful as prices show an upward tendency.

Pineapple/Papaya

The situation in Thailand is slightly improving, but the back log in shipments will still remain for the coming months. The higher prices in the last months have made buyers to act prudent and consequently supply and stocks in Europe ae low. We expect this as well to last for another couple of months.

Mango is short after this crop and will remain high priced till next crop in 2017.

Prunes

We see more and more discrepancy between the small and bigger sizes of a-pitted prunes from Chile. Big sizes are getting scarce, whereas smaller sizes are still well available.

California facing a failure crop with very high prices, which are hardly of interest for the European markets as they also have to cope with a 9,6% import duty against a zero duty for Chilean product.

Raisins Though on the Izmir Boursa the prices did firm a little, the export price are a somewhat more attractive due o the earlier mentioned weaker Turkish Lira against the dollar. Shipments are strong and we may see some changes in the levels after the New Year.

Iran is watching these development with a bad temper, as they have to follow the Turkish level – though with some distance – to attract the price-buyers for their product,

California is struggling to set a price: farmers and shippers cannot yet come to a conclusion what the so-called ‘field price’ must be. This is the basis on which export prices are determined. In the last weeks levels are stable, but of course the somewhat lower prices from Turkey do not help to move bigger quantities from California at “sound” prices.

South Africa is sold, but first indications for the new crop are positive, though too early to draw any conclusions.

Chile – as usual – has found a lot of ‘last’ containers of the several varieties – except the jumbo goldens, which are a real disaster – and prices are moving side wards.

Nuts

Walnuts Export shipments from California were booming for October and year-to-date. Prices are moving up a little for both light as combo material due to continuous demand from a.o. an empty European market. Spot hardly anything available which sounds as music in the exporter’s ears, who were used to prices almost 50% and more, compared to today’s levels for walnuts. It looks like the crop will not reach the predicted 670K short tons and the additional shipments sofar have already offset the larger crop compared to last season. We think prices towards the end of the season will firm if we continue in this pace.

Chile still has some quantities left of lower graded material. Extra light and light 90% halves have disappeared from the market. Almost all buyers have had some problems with the quality this year and certainly those who bought the cheaper ‘yellow’ walnuts experienced quite some troubles quality wise due to the higher moisture levels.