GROWING international demand for health foods and an ability to continue processing through the coronavirus outbreak has Riverland almond producers remaining confident about the 2020 crop.
Almondco group sales and marketing manager Tim Jackson said despite rainfall leading into the harvest – which began in February – Riverland almonds appeared to be of “very high” quality this year.
“In the Riverland it’s been a pretty straightforward harvest,” Mr Jackson said.
“There were some days there where we had some rain, which caused a little bit of angst, but you’re always going to have that.
“But overall, the quality of the product we’re seeing is very high.”
However, Mr Jackson said restrictions on international shipping due to the COVID-19 emergency was feeding uncertainty surrounding potential almond exports.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty in the market at the moment,” he said.
“We’ve still secured contracts with a lot of our business partners overseas, but for everyone there’s a lot of uncertainty around global consumption levels.
“The fact that there will be a focus on eating healthy places us in a reasonable position to sell our almonds.
“The trend we’re seeing globally is consumers are looking for self-stable products they can store and still get reasonable value from.”
Australian Nut Industry Council chairman Brendan Sidhu said an increased demand for health foods in countries such as China – generated by the coronavirus outbreak – would benefit Riverland growers.
“We’ve had to go to different markets,” Mr Sidhu said.
“India is closed down, which has traditionally been one of our biggest markets, but China has been taking up the slack and there’s still pretty good demand there.
“We’re still getting pretty good demand from Europe… the biggest problem is getting container space and freight.”
“The long shelf life is a bonus, but I think the health benefits of almonds has seen a push lately. People are understanding the importance of health and almonds are good for a lot of things.”
Mr Jackson said Almondco’s processing facility was still able to operate among current social distancing requirements.
“We’ve put in a place a number of extra measures surrounding food safety,” Mr Jackson said.
“We’re already highly geared that way already, but we’re making sure our staff are healthy and safe by staggering shifts and social distancing at lunch.
“Procedures have been put in place to ensure we can keep processing the crop as quickly as we can.”