— i7 — 



did not respond freely, and as a result the market gradually receded 

 to 75 marks for Damascus, and to 84 marks per 100 kilos for Cali- 

 fornian kernels, under the pressure of a lack of demand. In the 

 meantime the article has remained at the above quotations, but there 

 is a well-founded prospect that in the course of the autumn when, 

 as experience shows, apricot kernels are always in the best demand, 

 the market will again rise. For the present it is true that business 

 is still slack, but it is said that there is already some indication of a 

 desire to buy for later shipment. It must be borne in mind that 

 according to report, cocoa-nuts and ground-nuts have lately been used 

 as substitutes for sweet and bitter almonds for many purposes , but 

 these products will never be able to take the place of apricot kernels 

 altogether. 



This year's crop in the district of Damascus is reported to have 

 been a fair average one, but in the other apricot districts of Asia 

 Minor the results have only been very meagre, especially because 

 these regions have been severely tried by serious disturbances which 

 happened to synchronise with the harvest time. From California the 

 reports were at first very favourable, but there also, it now appears, 

 only a moderate harvest can be reckoned upon. The output of Japan, 

 of which there has been a good deal of talk lately, is quantitatively 

 so slight that it cannot be expected to have any influence whatsoever 

 upon the course of the market. 



As is always the case, the sale of pressed almond oil from apricot 

 kernels has dragged somewhat during the summer months, but the 

 fact that almond oil from sweet almonds has recently considerably 

 advanced in price has rather stimulated the demand for the first 

 named variety. The sale of essential oil of bitter almonds of our 

 own distillation has been of normal proportions. 



Almond Oil, pressed, from almonds. Ph. G. IV. In the 

 course of the summer the prices for all varieties of sweet almonds 

 had advanced greatly, because the fears of a considerable shortage 

 in the crop in all producing districts (which had already been expressed 

 in our last Report) were confirmed, and at the beginning of September 

 a sudden further upward movement took place, bringing the prices 

 of first quality Sicilian almonds up to 230 marks and for Bari quality 

 up to 215 marks per 1 00 kilos. The Sicilian harvest is said to have 

 yielded an even worse result than had been expected. It is said that 

 it will amount to only about 20000 bales, while the whole of last 

 year's stock has been cleared. In Apulia, it is alleged, the crop will 

 be less than half of the average. If we take into account that in 

 the spring sweet almonds averaged about 150 marks per 100 kilos, 

 it will be seen that there is no further need to explain the important 

 increase which we have been compelled to make in the price of pressed 



