A colder, wetter winter is one of the reasons California's almond growers are expecting a large crop this season. Though water continues to be an issue, this year's almond crop is expected to be larger than last season's partly because there's more water available.
"The almond crops looks better this year than it did last year, and we can definitely attribute that to a colder and wetter winter,” said Robert Rocha with P-R Farms in Clovis, California. "With the added rain and bigger snowpack, we have more water to irrigate throughout the summer, when the trees need it the most."
The latest USDA estimates put this year's California almond crop at 2.05 million meat pounds, which is almost an eight percent increase over last year's crop. Growers saw high prices for almonds last season, but initial prices this season are lower than that partly because there will be plenty of almonds available.
"The bigger crop is one part of there being lower prices. We had a bigger carry coming into this season and we're looking at a bigger crop this year, so the combination has caused prices to be lower.” said Rocha. "We saw historical high prices to start last year's crop, which restricted shipments. When the prices dropped dramatically in the beginning of this year, export demand picked up and shipments hit record levels. With the bigger crop coming, we hope the market continues to respond to these favorable prices with strong shipments.”
A strong valuation for the dollar also caused complications in some markets last year. Rocha hopes lower prices will boost sales in those markets, especially considering this will be a competitive year for almonds.
"There are also big crops for other nuts this year, and that has played into pricing as well. Walnuts look to be big and pistachios will have a large rebound crop. So other nuts out there in good supplies plays into this,” said Rocha. “We just want people to continue to buy almonds, so we have to be competitive."
For more information:
Robert Rocha
P-R Farms
+1 559 299 7278