China continues to squeeze competitors in the global walnut market

According to EastFruit analysts, in 2021, the export of walnuts from China increased, according to preliminary estimates, by 60% in value terms. And this is against the background of record low prices for walnuts in the first half of the calendar year. It should be noted that several post-Soviet countries turned out to be among the main importers at once.

Interestingly, China has updated the export records for inshell walnuts and walnut kernels in 2021. According to our estimates, the export of kernels has doubled over the year to 45-47 thousand tons, and the volume of exports of inshell walnuts – approximately one and a half times to 110-115 thousand tons.

In total, China earned about $ 420 million from the export of walnuts in 2021, which also became a new record. Thus, at the end of 2021, China can rise to third place in the world ranking of walnut exporters, bypassing Chile and increasing the gap with Ukraine, which is still struggling, but is holding the fifth position. At the same time, Ukraine continued to experience difficulties with the export of walnuts due to low world prices and changes in the regime of access to the Turkish market.

By the way, it is interesting to note that among the six largest buyers of Chinese walnuts there are three post-Soviet countries at once: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. At the same time, the export of walnuts from China to Russia in 2021 increased by more than one and a half times.

However, unexpectedly, the UAE became the main buyer of walnuts in 2021, which increased imports 3.5 times a year. The second and third places are taken by Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, respectively.

By the way, Turkey, which sharply reduced the import of walnuts from Ukraine, seems to have replaced the Ukrainian walnut with the Chinese one. At the end of 2021, the export of walnuts from China to Turkey increased by 2.2 times, and Turkey took fourth place in the ranking of the most important markets for this type of walnut for China.

For walnut exporters from Ukraine and Moldova, we also note three more fastest growing markets for Chinese nuts: Iraq, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia. These countries have more than doubled their purchases of Chinese walnuts in a year.

Tags: Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Moldova, walnut