Nut news from around the world!

B R A Z I L KERNELS JUNE 2004 

HELLO BACK from 20 odd days in the pits of the amazon

visited most growing regions & we must say we are truly surprised at the bad situation we are faced with this year.

1: the crop was good, but maybe not good enough for increased world demand we must guess !!

2: suppliers / factories contracted to advance monies in the interior to the natives to go into the jungle & collect the pods as prices rose it appeared that many quantities were collected & as the price rose & rose to levels never seen before they sold the raw seed at higher money, despite the fact these goods had already been paid for

regretably there is no honour & many shippers are faced with massive losses.

Many shippers are requesting extensions untill next year or indeed just not honouring low price contracts, & certainly fast payments will be a big consideration.

3: the market has been driven by, so many factors >>

a: the crops were very late due to late rain falls

b: there was no carry over apart from what we had in europe, so this left the world short of stocks,

    many buyers in urgent need of stocks

c: the roads were closed/rain swept & so poor unable to carry goods to la paz & then on to ship from chile

d: then the crackers <people who crack the nuts> decided to go on strike as they heard the price of brazils

    doubled & wondered why their wages were still the same ie; maybe $ 20 to 30 per month

e: after this strike then a few containers got away, each time there was a reason thet the pipeline could not fill up around the world

f:  then we have had the roads blocked by other civil commotions & riots, whilst i was there the roads had been blocked in june approx 18 days, containers are trying to get shipped but to say the least it is chaos !!!!

4: we can only say that most commodities seem to be going limit up, like hazels & brazils having doubled in price, cashews sharp rises, there certainly seems to be dramatic increases in nut consumption, maybe the world has seen the benefits of nuts & dried fruits being a good & healthy food.

I guess if we look at the new members of the eu like latvia, slovenia, poland etc alone slowly coming to the markets maybe their economies will grow & in turn we must change our minds as to real levels & prices of nuts & dried fruits

WE HAVE NEVER EVER BEEN FACED WITH SUCH A TERRIBLE SITUATION & PRICES RISING TO SUCH AN EXTENT, THIS IS THE WORSE I HAVE SEEN IN MY 33 years IN THE TRADE

REGARDS   TONY FARNDELL

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