The latest USDA forecast on California's almond crop estimates statewide production will top last year's crop. A prolonged drought, however, has growers worried about future production.The Objective Measurement Report released this week forecasts almond production will reach 2.10 billion meat pounds. That would be an increase of 4.5 percent over last year's production. While the report noted that pest and disease pressure has been lower than last year, it also noted that orchards required irrigation in the winter months due to lack of precipitation. Sustained drought conditions have growers concerned about how future production will pan out.
“We're in one of those situations where we don't know what's going to happen,” said Brian Wright of Del Mar Farms. “Because we're in one of the worst droughts on record, we don't have data to show how bad it can get. We know the crop is out there this year, but we're concerned about what will happen next year.” Even if this year's crop reaches 2.10 billion pounds, and it's not guaranteed that it will, a prolonged drought could not only have repercussions on what growers do next year, but also on how they market this year's crop.
“We'll have to figure out how to market the 2014 crop,” said Wright. “If the 2015 crop looks bad, we'll hold back sales this year, but we can market aggressively if it looks good. We're in uncharted territory, so we'll just wait to see how it will play out.”