USA
Harvest began on time in early July and with small exceptions has been uninterrupted by
rain. This season’s crop yield is expected to be 20-30% larger than last year with
consistent quality attributes. Due to the exhausted inventory balance coming into
season, Californian garlic will remain tight through to September 2018. Due to reduction
in tonnage growers incurred over the last few years, raw material costs for the 2017 crop
are higher than prior year, which will result in a more expensive 2017 garlic crop.
China
New season garlic is now available. The whole garlic market is facing downward
pressure and this will continue until supply ends. The sentiment from the market is that
prices with be steady over the coming months as there is an abundance of fresh garlic in
storage. These stores are anticipated to be a whole year’s demand. Further information
coming from the market is that speculators have locked in garlic flakes at the higher end
of the market, this could mean that volume will not get released into the market which
could lead to shortages unless prices rebound.