Increasing Walnut Consumption Any Way We Can

Increasing Walnut Consumption Any Way We Can

Patrick Cavanaugh
Patrick Cavanaugh
Mike Poindexter is CEO of the Poindexter Nut company based in Selma in Fresno County. It's a major Walnut handler. He's all in about getting more people to snack on walnuts.

We have a flavored walnut line called Crazy Go Nuts, and that's what the walnut industry needs---more snacking opportunities.

“We're shipping the flavored walnut snacks to 1700 to 2000 stores now. And that's just on the flavored nuts. On the nut butters, we have those in close to 1300 or 1400 stores,” he said.

And Poindexter comments on the need not just getting the over supply down, but getting demand up.

“One of our challenges that we've had is that a lot of walnuts get sold through food service channels. When restaurants are shut down or restricted, the amount of volume to go through food service is reduced,” noted Poindexter. “One thing that is very different today than it was 50 years ago is the ability of people to cook. We have a lot of people watching cooking shows in America. Watching cooking shows is really big, however, actually doing some cooking, not quite so much.”

“And what will happen is if the walnuts are not in the snacking category where I think you'll eat more snacks at home, than when you're having to do the cooking yourself,” said Poindexter.

“But if a lot of the walnut consumption is in dishes that people generally will eat at a restaurant. Then you're going to have a drop off in consumption over all. And that's going to be a little bit more work to overcome,” he said.

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