Bill Morecraft
Senior Vice President
As the harvest has progressed, it has become increasingly apparent that the 2018 Crop will not approach 2.45 billion lbs. It may be modestly larger than the 2017 Crop, with 2.3 billion lbs looking like an over/under number that will evenly split bets.
Entering harvest, there were two factors dampening the enthusiasm for locking in commitments. One concern was the potential impact of trade issues and tariffs and the second was a potentially larger crop. Growers were skeptical of the NASS Estimate after living through record freezing temperatures during early bloom. Buyers had no reason to doubt the NASS Estimate. The differences in outlook created confusion and delayed commitments well into the harvest. However, there was never any reason to believe that consumer demand was not continuing to grow…[Read More]