New Record For
Nuts Is Posted
Do there aeem to be fewer nuts in
the pecan sticky buns or almond
cookies you buy nowadays? Don't
blame your taste buds—there may
in fact be fewer nuts.
Soaring prices of sugar, flour, and
other crucial baking ingredients—
not to mention the added costs to
stoke the stove—forced some manu
facturers of baked goods to start
cutting corners last fall. And “non
essential” ingredients like nuts were
often the first to go with toughening
times. Even in products where nuts
are essential, such as pralines and
walnut cakes, some manufacturers
have been skimping on the nuts,
raising the price, or both.
Ironically, the cutback strikes
when tree nut production is bur
geoning. Output of the four major
nuts—pecans, walnuts, almonds, and
filberts —hit a record 443,800 tons
in 1973, over 1% times the average
production in 1960-64. Hawaiian
macadamia nuts added another 5,500
tons.
The 9408-million tree nut industry,
however, isn’t about to let its main
stay markets fade away. Industry
people are trying to counter the
sagging demand from food manu
facturers by stepping up advertising
and sales promotion. Their cam
paigns often focus on the nutritive
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value of nuts and tantalize the con
sumer by suggesting more imagina
tive uses of nuts in cooking and
entertaining. Relatively new markets
such as cereal manufacturers, mail
order houses, and foreign buyers are
also being courted.
The almond industry has scored
the greatest success in coming up
with new markets and uses.
Perpetually plagued with large sup
plies and limited markets, the al
mond handlers have introduced their
wares in foods such as natural
cereals and frozen vegetables and
casseroles. They’ve also drummed
up considerable foreign business.
Exports now account for over half
the shelled almonds, compared with
under 10 percent in 1962-63. And,
over 95 percent of the almond crop is
sold shelled.
Domestically, the top users of
almonds—confectioners, salters, and
cereal manufacturers—take over half
the market. The rest goes to bakers,
other food manufacturers, and other
outlets, such as retailers, wholesalers,
and mail order houses.
The pecan industry is playing pro
motion on a low key, reason being
the wide swings in annual produc
tion and supplies. However, pecan
use seems to be holding its own—
replacing declining markets with
new ones.
The biggest buyers of pecans—
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200 to 320
bakeries—took only 26 percent of
the crop sold in 1974, down a tenth
from 1961. But sales to the other
markets picked up. Confectioners,
the No. 2 customers, used a slightly
greater percentage in 1974 —almost
a fourth of total sales. Gift packs
and mail order sales rose signifi
cantly.
Completely new pecan outlets were
exports, accounting for over 6 per
cent of the sales in 1974, and cereal
manufacturers, about 2 percent.
Church donations and sales margin
ally added to the list of outlet).
As with the almond business, the
walnut industry has cu!
eign trade. During 1962
zoomed from practical
temess of defeat and the
exultation of tnumph, and
from both we have learned
there can be no turning
back We must go forward
to preserve in peace what
we won in war.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur
Lancaster Farming, Saturday. July 5.1975
" '■v
Itivated for
t-73, exports
ly zero to
xs
*2OOO
CASH REBATE
ON ALL MODELS
account for a fifth of the in-shell
walnut market.
On the domestic front, most of the
in-ahell walnuts continue to go to
grocery wholesalers and chain stores.
Traditional markets for shelled nuts,
on the other hand, are down. The
biggest seller —unsalted packages in
grocery stores—only accounted for
about a fourth of the shelled sales
in 1974, down 34 percent from 1962-
63.
Marketing pat
terns for the
Albert industry
have remained
fairly static,
but then so
has production.
Handlers mar
ket a fairly constant supply of in
shell filberts each year because they
believe demand is fairly stable. The
excess filberts are shelled. Rivalry
among marketing agencies and sharp
competition from imported, low-cost
shelled filberts, however, have damp
ened interest in marketing innova
tions for the shelled filberts.
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