California Walnuts: UK continues significant growth.

Walnuts in their shells

The 2018-19 year-to-date results (to 31st August) show that the UK demand for ‘shelled’ California Walnuts has grown significantly.

UK shipment figures to 31st August highlight a year-on-year increase for ‘shelled’ California Walnuts of over 15%. This equates to an uplift of 1,358,293 pounds, or just over 616 metric tonnes (MT) 1 – a sizeable increase on 2017/18.

The first month of the new crop cycle, September, highlights that the UK demand for ‘shelled’ California Walnuts has also increased. UK shipments to 30th September show a year-on-year increase of over 131% to 190,072 pounds, versus 82,000 in 2018/19.

Pamela Graviet, Sr. Marketing Director, International, California Walnut Commission comments on the season, “The growing season started with some heavy rains which delayed bloom and we have had a fairly mild summer. As with any natural product, weather plays a big part in production from year to year. This season we’re anticipating a slightly smaller crop than last year. But over the past 10 years, our crop size has doubled to meet the growing demand”.

The 2019 California Walnut production is forecast at 630,000 tons (571,526 MT), down 6.8 % from 2018’s production of 672,723 tons (610,284 MT). The forecast is based on 365,000 bearing acres, up 4.3 percent from 2018’s estimated bearing acreage of 350,000. 2

CWC autumn 2019 update

For a round-up of the recent CWC activity in 2019, see the autumn newsletter here 3

For further information, please contact the California Walnut Commission on 01628 535 755 or via email at trade@californiawalnuts.co.uk.

1 CWC Shipment figures in August 2019 – shelled pounds – 2017/18: 8,689,019 against 2018/19: 10,047,312

 2 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service

2019 California Walnut Objective Measurement Report, Released: August 30, 2019

 3 californiawalnuts.co.uk/trade/trade-newsletter-autumn-2019