Market prices hardly affected by likelihood of third giant nut crop

摘要

THE PROSPECT of another record almond harvest in California, the third in succession to have topped one billion pounds, seems to have dented prices only slightly. With bearing acreage soaring and world consumer demand high, almonds are reportedly still "selling like crazy". The 2004 crop is set to weigh in at 1.1 billion Ibs on a shelled basis, a 66% jump from the 1.03 billion Ibs of last year according to the so-called subjective forecast from the California Agricultural. Statistics Service (CASS).Output from the 2002 harvest, the first to break the 'magic' one billion. Ibs level, was some 1.08 billion Ibs.