Nuts to El Nino

They are the most unrewarding of nuts in my opinion. 

Its thick and woody, almost reptilian shell is always a challenge to crack open and faced with a bit of effort the other varieties of nuts on our table seem so much more attractive for that casual snack

I could say that I can take them or leave them but the Brazil Nut was at the forefront of my mind by its very noticeable absence this Christmas. 

In my local shops I have been aware of a patchy supply chain of them over the last decade but have largely put that down to those well organised festive shoppers who hoard them early on. The displays of nuts always seem to be amongst the first in the run up to the season. 

Equally, given the wide use of the Brazil Nut in confectionery and for its perceived “Superfood” properties there may have been more demanding commercial markets flexing their buying power to more effect than even the large supermarket chains in the UK.  

However, this years shortage is a bit more concerning being attributed to environmental issues in the natural growing areas in the Amazon Basin. 

The El Nino effect which drives the weather systems around the Americas has led to a prolonged drought. 

In a purely natural and self preservation action the Brazil Nut tree when threatened by depleted water resources ejects the pods that contain the nuts before they are ripe.

This has ecological spin offs for the volumes of pollination by large bodied bees and also for the rodent Agouti’s who take and bury the seeding pods for their own consumption and by which the future generations of nut bearing trees are spread through the forest.

The trees can reach a height of 50 metres in this spirit of mutual cooperation by the native flora and fauna. It is a long term and finely balanced ecology with it taking 12 to 15 years for a tree to reach the stage of maturity to produce. 

In terms of the local economies the shortage of Brazil Nuts is also causing significant hardship. 

There is little or no formal plantation growing of the producing trees and anyway there is still the relentless and reckless drive of deforestation for more profitable but ultimately eco system damaging land uses. 

The Brazil Nuts are therefore almost exclusively harvested by the local population in their role as foragers. They travel into the forest growing areas , many remote and difficult to access from December to May. 

In just one growing area of Bolivia as many as 120,000 inhabitants have relied upon the annual nut harvest for their livelihoods but with only one third of the 2017 crop actually being cultivable this has impacted severely on otherwise limited regional employment and income possibilities. 

There are many losers but cynically the downturn in supply has seen a 61% jump in prices in the market and some dealers and traders will be taking the profits but this can only be seen as short term and unsustainable. 

A very "first world crisis" (if it can at all be termed a crisis) has also arisen with the scarcity of Brazil Nuts threatening the favourite Middle Class dietary ranges of granola, muesli and snack bars.

It is hoped that El Nino will relent in its disruption to the climate across the growing area and indeed this has been experienced  on a cyclical basis according to decades of recording patterns of rainfall and temperature. 

Such is the ability of the natural eco-system to recover from such changes and very quickly that we may in fact be spoiled for choice for that festive nut dish on our tables in 2018. Here's hoping.