Increasing Walnut Consumption

Mike Poindexter is CEO of the Poindexter nut company based in Selma (Fresno County.) It's a major walnut handler. And Poindexter is all-in about getting more people to snack on walnuts.

They have a flavored walnut line called Crazy Go Nuts. And that's what the Walnut industry needs. More snacking opportunities.

“Yeah. We're shipping those to about 2,000 stores now. And that's just on the flavored nuts. We also have nut butters in about 1,400 stores,” Poindexter said.

And Poindexter comments are not about just getting the supply down, but getting demand up.

“One of the Challenges that we've had is a lot of walnuts get sold through food service channels. When some restaurants are shut down or restricted due to COVID, the amount of volume to go through food service is reduced,” said Poindexter.

“Now, one thing that is very different today than it was 50 years ago is the ability of people to cook. You have a lot of people to watch cooking shows in America. Watching cooking shows is really big, actually doing some cooking, not quite so much,” Poindexter said. “And what will happen is if the walnuts are not in the snacking category where you may think you'll eat more snacks at home, than you will, when you're having to do the cooking yourself.

“But if a lot of the walnut consumption is in dishes that people generally will eat at a restaurant, but won't make it home. Then you're going to have a drop-off in walnut consumption there. And that's going to be a little bit more work to overcome,” explained Poindexter.