The top European producer is France, with close to 30.000 tons per year. The rest of the countries of the world produce for consumption on the home market, and not in all cases do they cover the internal demand.

If we observe the commercial flows between countries we see again that the USA stands out and, more particularly, California as the principal supplier of the walnut in the world (57%). The case of China is very different, Even though it is one of the top world producers, the enormous internal demand absorbs almost all of its national production, gradually reducing the surplus available for export(13.7%).Some projections even show that in the next few years China could convert into a net importer for walnut in the world.

The other main exporter is France, with a 12.6% share of the worldwide export market. Together with California it is the principal supplier for the European market.

India and Chile count on more modest shares of the export market, but the latter has an important presence in the Spanish market.

The prospects for the future show a stabilized evolution of the world market. The developments in China are of an unmechanised character and always as cultivation with another principal product. Even though the farmers have been given permission to increase the number of trees per hectare, it is expected that they will only reach enough to cover the domestic demand.

In California we can see a moderate increase in production without having significantly increased the cultivated area. The principal reason is that plantations with old varieties are being replaced with modern ones which have a much better productivity.

France maintains its cultivated area relatively constant but is not changing to more productive varieties; in this way its production is found to be stable.

Other countries such as Turkey and Iran produce very rustic varieties for the external market and only have a domestic market for confectionary and cakes.

In the face of a standstill in crop development world demand is sharply increasing. Firstly it is due to the increase in world population. Secondly it is because of the improved income in some countries such as China or India. Thirdly, in Europe and the USA, it is probably as a result of the great promotion of the consumption of dried fruits, and especially the walnut, as a part of a healthy diet.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture of the USA, whilst the increase in world production of the walnut between 1999 and 2002 has been 6% the increase in consumption has been 8.2% during the same period. This shows that the good prospects for the world market observed during the last few years are being maintained.