Balint said having to stimulate demand is something that has not been critical for many years.

“It’s like turning a large ship,” he said. “It takes time and momentum. It’s not like parking your Honda.”

Olmstead and Balint believe the downturns in prices will “open doors” domestically and abroad which will stimulate use and grow demand over time.
“It’s a good product,” Balint said. “It’s hard to keep a good product down. It’s been used for thousands of years, and this is just a bump in the road.”

Not all of those in the walnut industry are sanguine. Mike Poindexter, chief executive officer of Poindexter Nut Co. in Selma, said he does not think walnut prices will recover to levels seen two years ago.

“Our inventory is up and we are in oversupply,” he said. “I don’t want to sound too pessimistic, but it’s not rosy. I think about 25,000 acres that are not producing top quality walnuts – some of older Ashley, Tehama, Eureka and Serr varieties - need to be pulled.”

Those in the nut industries point to a combination of factors that have driven prices down, including competition from abroad and the weakening in the economy of some of California’s biggest export markets, including China.

The strong U.S. dollar also contributed.

In India, Zion said some importers did not honor contracts for almonds, and in fact abandoned containers.

“They did not want to take a loss,” he said.

On the pistachio side, Zion says Iran was selling nuts at a lower price abroad.

Pistachio producers in California are looking to rebound from a bad year in 2015 during which many trees produced blanks and the 275 million pounds produced was lowest since 2003. Low chill hours were blamed, and the hope is that this year there has been a boost in chilling.

Iran had bumper crops in 2014 and 2015, said Richard Matoian, executive director of American Pistachio Growers.

“In a worldwide market, we can’t just look at what we’re producing here,” Matoian said.

He said pistachio prices have only dropped slightly, about 5 percent.

Zion said prices for almond growers dropped about 20 percent. Prices to walnut growers dropped 60 percent and higher, Poindexter said.

Zion pointed to the use of pistachios and almonds over time in various forms – from almond milk to pistachio crusted salmon to trail mix and cereals.

“We can’t depend on just one segment,” he said.

Zion believes the declining prices should translate to lower prices for consumers.

“We’re not immune to the laws of supply and demand,” he said. “We go through cycles. This is my fourth almond cycle. We’ll build demand again and find ways to use them more.”