How to View Lower Almond Prices

By Patrick Cavanaugh, with the AgInformation Network

Lower prices should help move them quickly around the world, said Dan Sumner a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, and the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center at UC Davis. He thinks that lower price of almonds will not last long, but in the meantime, it’ll help move the crop around the world—a hungry world for almonds!

“A little price moderation will help you move the crop. And we’ve got a big world out there,” said Sumner. “We’ve got income growth in other countries over the longer haul. We’ll see how tough it is over the next few years,” he said.

“We think about our problem with COVID and our economy and our government spent….. If I can say it….trillions keeping money in the hands of consumers, keeping people employed to the extent that it was possible, but the rest of the world who can still buy some of our almonds have also been hit. So, if you look at Europe, their economy’s been hit as bad as ours. That’s a big market for our almonds,” said Sumner.

Sumner spoke about India, new big market for California almonds

“Of course only the higher income Indians can afford almonds, the very poorest to the Indians couldn’t buy our almonds, but you know, you get well over a billion people and you can get a few hundred million in a kind of a middle-class that can buy our crops, and so India is a good market,” Sumner noted. “But they’ve been hit by the COVID pandemic as well.”

“Regarding almond pricing? It’s going to be tough over a year or two. It seems to me,” Sumner said.