Turkish Nut Association to visit colleagues in California in June • EastFruit

May 26, 2023

The California Almond Board (ABC) will work with the California Walnut Commission to host a delegation from the Turkish Nut Association in June, EastFruit reports citing the California Almond Board. Turkey is one of the countries ABC is looking at as part of a global trade strategy. The Turkish government lowered tariffs on imported almonds on Jan 1, 2018, from 43% down to 15%; Turkey then implemented retaliatory tariffs of 20% on US almonds after the US announced Section 232 tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. In 2019, Turkey lowered the retaliatory tariff by 10%, which remains today. The current applied tariff for US almonds in Turkey is 25%.

The US is the leading importer of almonds to Turkey, which imports an average of $160 million annually (70% core and 30% shell almonds). The US share in Turkish imports in 2022/21 was 75%, followed by Spain at 7.4% and Australia and Iran at 6.3% each. Uzbekistan, which supplies mainly kernel, accounts for about 2% of Turkey’s almond imports, but last season’s supplies fell by more than 25% in value and 80% in quantity due to a poor harvest.

Read also: Surprising action in the Turkish hazelnut market has led to price swings

Also, the USA is the leader in walnut imports to Turkey. In the 2022/21 season, the country purchased more than $170 million worth of walnuts, while the share of the USA decreased by 22% (to $62 million) in value terms (in-shell and shelled), while China, on the contrary, almost doubled deliveries to Turkey to $58 million, thus occupying a share of nearly 34%. If the United States supplies mainly in-shell nuts, then China supplies the kernel and in-shell almost equally. Until the 2021/20 season, Ukraine accounted for about 10% of deliveries and reduced walnut imports to Turkey to $4 million, 2.3%.

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