Photo courtesy of USA Today
Bloomsberg reports that the California almond harvest is expected to hit record numbers with a report of 1.65 billion pounds of the nut.
An increase of exports to China (that has increased eight time in the last five years), India and Pakistan as well as an overall worldwide demand. California benefits from the demand as the world’s No. 1 almond producer.
Farmers have invested in larger almond orchards over the last five years as the demand increased. Reports show California has 810,000 acres of planted almonds across the state. Compared to ten years ago, this is a 25 percent increase. California produces 80 percent of the world’s almond supply.
At first the state’s crop success was uncertain after a cold and rainy spring, but the USDA reports the crop with be at least 17 percent larger than last year.
A variety of farmers changed their row crops to almonds when fertilizer and other production costs rose.
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