Shoppers may be forced to forgo nut or pay more after warnings of second year of diminished crop

The price of brazil nuts could rise by more than a fifth after low rainfall hit production in Bolivia where more than half the global crop is grown.

The wholesale price of the large curved nut, which is popular for snacking and in muesli, has already risen by more than a quarter to $4.80 a pound (£8.50 a kilogramme) since August after a poor harvest in 2016.



Now the industry is warning of a 2017 harvest 30% to 40% down on normal years amid rising demand in the UK, Europe’s biggest importer.

The nut grows wild in the Amazonian rainforest and is harvested every year by locals in remote communities. Large pods containing the nuts are collected once they fall into nearby waterways where they can be reached from boats. Each pod can contain up to 30 nuts.

The trees, which can grow to about 50 metres and live for a 1,000 years, are not suitable for growing in orchards and grow only in the Amazon region, which covers Brazil and Peru as well as Bolivia.

A poor flowering season followed by a lack of rain during the month of November has meant that fewer pods were available before the beginning of the main shipping season in March.

“Prices are going up and up and up,” said Ian Dyas, a trader at CG Hacking & Sons, a specialist importer and distributor of nuts. “The crop collected so far is very little compared with previous years.”

Dyas said exporters could usually cover any gap in supply by exporting the remains of the previous year’s crop – but that limited supplies meant that had already been shipped. “This year the gathering is very poor,” he said. “The stock is not there at any price. You can’t get it.”



He said it was possible that more stock may become available later as locals traditionally travel further into the forest to gather nuts if they could get a good price for them.

Kate Gaskell of Liberation Foods, the UK’s largest importer of Fairtrade nuts, said the drop in production in Bolivia could be up to 50% on last year’s relatively low exports of about 20,000 tonnes of shelled kernels.

She said the harvesting of the nuts was vital in maintaining the lifestyle of those in remote rainforest communities. “If they can’t make a living then they are more vulnerable to loggers and the mines,” she said.

The expected fall in supply of brazil nuts comes amid rising demand for them in the UK, as part of the trend for healthier snacks and because of their reputation as a superfood. The nut has a high level of selenium, which is purportedly good for the skin and bolstering immunity.

Mark Setterfield, managing director of the importer RM Curtis, said wholesale prices would stay high as demand was growing and the fall in the value of the pound against the dollar since the Brexit vote had also had an impact. “It’s a potent combination,” he said.

But it is not clear whether wholesale price rises will feed through directly to consumers as the popularity of nuts means supermarkets might choose to hold down prices to win over shoppers.

Gaskell said food producers, such as those making muesli, might also help keep prices in check by switching away from brazil nuts to other alternatives.