Dear Readers,
Trucks with 2019 crop raisins come in now, since a fortnight, very frequently, are unloaded and go out again.
The feeling is that quite a lot of farmers are still in the drying-process, which means they have still to deliver and most probably it will end the first days of april.
At time of writing the warehouses are getting fuller and fuller. In that respect we see each year the same sort of patterns.
The above means that after next week we might be open to make some offers on enquiries
Pricing is a the biggest point however. With an unstable Rand it is hard to aim any calculation. As logical practice, we will only react on enquiries.
During the month of september 2017 it became clear that prices of Thompsons mediums raised sharply.
The reason was that the total tonnage of the USA crop happened to be sharply down and as a result prices rose very quickly over USD 3000.- per ton.
Today prices are at, although pretty high still, a more realistic level because in 2018 the crop in Thompsons came back to more or less normal figures, bringing supply and demand in rough balance again.
As a result, we are facing now levels which are well below usd 3000,- per ton again
A total different situation we experience with goldens.
In the first place we find less demand for jumbos because of too high pricing, meaning that they priced themselves out of the market.
On the other hand we notice more and more demand for mediums but the simple fact that the premium Farmers in South Africa are receiving for their goldens, does not encourage them to produce that much, because it is for them much easier to produce Thomspons, where some packers pay a very high price in order to receive enough material.
We foresee that the crop in 2020 will look sharply different because, in the end prices for Thompsons will cool down and a more realistic premium for goldens will come back again. This will bring back former realistic percentages between Thompson, and goldens and of course not to forget the other types. .