Dear Readers,
We arrived in the month of march and have witnessed that reasonably, good quantities of mainly Thompsons and Golden medium have been delivered sofar.
Three weeks before, we were hit in the area by heavy rains which disturbed the finishing/drying-process of many farmers, as a result of which, overall less goods were brought to the packers for some days. Meanwhile we are back to normal and the load/trucks of raisins arrived again in a high speed.
Whilst watching such progress, it is also good to notice that several farmers did bring other types of raisins again in higher tonnage than in the past. This is a positive development.
Apart from flames and other material it seems that various farmers took also the extra trouble of making more golden jumbos again.
Neverthless the bulk of the goods seems to be Thompson mediums, which is not a bad development, having an open eye for the strong demand from the USA raisin-industry and the rest of the world.
We have said it before,:due to the fact that USA had not such a fantastic crop (to put it mildly) and Iran having also less tonnage available than normal, prices have been moving up further. That is to say on the selling side. Buyers however are holding back and are still hoping for better days.
We should realize that the current crop/intake is, in comparison with other years, a bit later, generally speaking and came seriously into movement since the last 2 weeks and could possibly last until end of march resp.first days of april.
Some specialists state that the crop is big this year and should be close to 70.000 tons. More pessimistic ( realistic? ) players believe in a tonnage of 55/60.000 tons.. We shall see, in the end, who had the right figures.
One important factor we must repeat again and again, whatever the market shall do on supply and demand. the currency-factor will or can play a decisive role.
But please do not forget the very most important factor.
QUALITY FIRST!!!