The 2021 California almond crop size has come considerably short of what was initially forecasted earlier this season. How will this reflect on prices and what other factors in the market are at play? Watch this brief interview with Richard Waycott, President of the Almond Board of California, as he explains.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Suterra for their industry support.
Almond Board of California — The 49th annual Almond Conference returned to Sacramento with a bang. Renovations to the newly named SAFE Credit Union Convention Center forced the conference to shift locations in 2019, and COVID-19 precautions forced the 2020 conference to a virtual format.
The Almond Board of California (ABC), abiding by Sacramento County safety mandates, welcomed 3,308 industry members back to downtown Sacramento with the biggest trade show in Conference history. 270 exhibitors blanketed the bottom level of the convention center with the latest products and innovations available to growers.
Day one of the conference, Tuesday, December 7, was dedicated for tradeshow time and the State of The Industry address. ABC President and CEO Richard Waycott and 2021/2022 Board Chairman Brian Wahlbrink headlined the address as co-anchors of “AlmondCenter”, a fast moving and informative ninety minutes of almond action news. ABC staff were positioned as field reporters who brought the latest information to attendees about shipping delays, water issues, marketing efforts, industry resources and more.
At the conclusion of the “AlmondCenter” production, Waycott and Wahlbrink announced the winners of the annual industry awards. George Goshgarian Sr. was presented with this year’s Almond Achievement Award, and Ken Stevenson was the recipient of the new Almond Technical Achievement Award. ABC and the industry thanked both award winners for their dedication and service to the industry over their respective careers. The industry then adjourned back to the tradeshow for an opening reception.
The vast amount of information dispersed at The Almond Conference began on day two, Wednesday, December 8. Growers and industry members learned the latest about key topics during three blocks of four consecutive sessions at 8:40 a.m., 10:00 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. A break in the action on day two was during lunch as Mattson President and Chief Innovation Officer Barb Stuckey addressed attendees. She talked about the latest in product development such as almond milk base – a 100 percent almond powder that when water is added becomes almond milk. Stuckey also identified areas that she sees as opportunities for almonds to enter the market like almond baked goods, pizza crusts, pastas and tortilla chips.
Educational sessions continued into day three of the conference with 11 more talks on marketing tactics, production information and more. Attendees also got a chance to hear the incredible story of Dan On, global CEO of Dan-D Pak. Born in Saigon, Vietnam — now known as Ho Chi Minh City – On’s journey includes escaping the Vietnam War, surviving pirate attacks on the open sea and living in a Malaysian refugee camp. On ultimately was brought to Canada through a Hope Lutheran Church program. After being adopted by Irish Canadian parents who sold granola, On came up with the idea to sell the ingredients separately which became a lucrative business decision. The Dan-D Group is now an importer, manufacturer, and distributor of cashews and other tree nuts, nut butters, dried fruits, snack foods and spices from around the world with approximately 1,000 employees in Canada, Vietnam, Thailand, United States, Taiwan, Hong Kong and China, with headquarters in Richmond, British Columbia.
The Almond Conference 2021 wrapped up with the annual Conference Gala Dinner, with a twist. This year, the Gala Dinner was transformed into the Nuthouse Honky Tonk Bar with a private concert from up-and-coming country music star Tyler Rich. As a California native, Rich entertained hundreds of industry members with original songs such as “The Difference” and “Leave Her Wild”.
ABC also included a few special presentations at the Gala Dinner. The 2020/2021 Almond Leadership class was recognized for their dedication and effort over the past two years, as the Covid-19 pandemic extended the 2020 class experience. ABC also recognized the lifetime contributions of Bill Morecraft Jr. who is retiring from Blue Diamond Growers after 35 years in the industry.
During the three-day event, ABC and the Almond Leadership Program ran a silent auction that netted over $11,000 for California Future Farmers of America. Thanks to the generosity of Emerald Sponsor Qcify, that total will be increased to over $36,000 going towards scholarships for graduating FFA students planning to pursue a degree in agriculture.
The Almond Conference 2021 would not be possible without the support of sponsors. ABC would like to thank the 2021 Metal Sponsors for their generosity this year.
All Conference presentations will be available at Almonds.com/Conference. The Almond Conference will again be in Sacramento at the SAFE Credit Union Convention Center in 2022. Industry members are encouraged to save December 6-8, 2022 as dates for the conference.
The North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) on Tuesday presented its Business for Bees Sustainability Award – an honor reserved for standout organizations that go above and beyond to support pollinators – to the Almond Board of California (ABC) and the state’s almond farmers.
“This is about their long-term dedication to supporting all pollinators in their orchards and throughout our ecosystem,” said Kelly Rourke, executive director of Pollinator Partnership, which founded NAPPC 21 years ago. “We’ve worked with them for many years and this is well-deserved recognition of their steadfast commitment to engaging farmers in pollinator conservation on multiple levels. The Almond Board and the entire almond industry have really moved the needle to raise awareness and generate action to protect pollinators.”
NAPPC has only given out its Business for Bees Sustainability Award once before. It is given in years when there is a business taking extra special steps to protect bees and all pollinators and to advance sustainability and innovation.
“ABC’s name is on this award, but it really goes to the 7,600 almond farmers in California,” said Josette Lewis, ABC’s chief scientific officer. “Farmers understand how important pollinators are to growing almonds and to all of agriculture and the environment. They want to be part of the solution.
The reasons for the award, Rourke said, include ABC’s leadership in founding the California Pollinator Coalition, its work promoting on-farm pollinator habitat and its support of years of research and education about the best practices for providing hospitable environments for pollinators in almond orchards and in other habitats.
ABC worked with Pollinator Partnership and the California Department of Food and Agriculture last spring to create the California Pollinator Coalition (CPC) which brought together a broad array of grower organizations across the state’s ag and environmental landscape to help promote the health of wild and managed pollinators.
“The formation of the California Pollinator Coalition was such a big step,” said Laurie Davies Adams, Pollinator Partnership’s Director of Programs, who helped found the CPC. “This is a unique statewide coalition that brings together every grower, farmer and rancher group. I don’t think that’s ever happened before. It’s going to make a real difference on the ground.”
NAPPC is a collaboration of diverse partners from the U.S., Mexico and Canada. It includes respected scientists, researchers, business people, conservationists and government officials. NAPPC works to promote awareness and scientific understanding of pollinators, to find common ground for solutions and to create innovative initiatives that benefit pollinators. NAPPC is administered and supported by Pollinator Partnership, a non-profit headquartered in San Francisco with a mission to promote the health of pollinators through education, conservation and research.
The award was announced during NAPPC’s 21st Annual International Conference, held virtually this year for the second time and hosted by the Pollinator Partnership and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. The conference and award ceremony were planned for the Smithsonian before being forced to remain virtual because of COVID-19.
Rourke and Adams said they would have liked to have given the honor in person to show how much they appreciate ABC’s work. “The strong effort that the Almond Board of California has mounted with the support of the almond industry to engage farmers and the entire agricultural community far beyond almond orchards is really impressive,” Adams said. “Bringing every grower group together to have an agriculturally-led coalition for pollinators is significant. It will provide building blocks for even more engagement and large results. It’s a pioneering effort that other states are seeking to emulate.”
“This is an outstanding honor for our farmers,” Lewis said, “especially considering all the good work that NAPPC and the Pollinator Partnership do. As much as anyone, almond farmers are tuned in to the importance of pollinators to their crops and our ecosystem. That’s why they work so hard to make their orchards healthy places for pollinators.”
Almond farmers across California’s Central Valley sit in what is essentially a flyway for pollinators. In recent years, almond farmers have applied to certify more than 110,000 acres of Bee Friendly Farming®, providing pollinator habitat and integrated pest management across the valley to keep that flyway healthy and create badly needed floral resources that compliment and expand beyond the annual almond bloom.
“Almond farmers have doubled the number of acres of bee friendly habit in California and in that pollinator flyway,” Lewis said. “We’re proud to help lead a broad coalition of agriculture and conservation groups to work together to promote and preserve habitat for pollinators.”
Building healthy soils has tremendous benefits. Increasing the amount of organic matter within the soil can improve water retention and protection, reduce erosion, sequester carbon, and improve crop yields. Increasing water scarcity and severe drought conditions make boosting soil resilience an even greater priority for California. Researchers are exploring how the environmental benefits of healthy soils initiatives can extend even further when readily available agricultural resources are used in regenerative ways.
A team of UC Davis researchers, led by Dr. Ruihong Zhang, has recycled dairy manure and almond twig waste into a nutrient-rich, safe, organic soil amendment. The new product was created and applied, and its effects continue to be studied. The idea is that the woody material can capture nutrients in the manure and slowly release them, as needed, into the soil. Because the product is also pelletized, it can be applied to croplands and orchards with standard farm equipment. Ultimately, the researchers hope to create a new model for using recycled agricultural resources to sequester carbon and provide benefits to the soil, crops, and the environment.
The partnership was a natural fit, as the Central Valley is home to many neighboring dairy farms and almond orchards, which have a long history of collaboration. Dairies are already major consumers of almond co-products, including hulls (used as a highly nutritious feed ingredient) and shells (used as a bedding material). With a goal of achieving zero waste by 2025, the California almond community has been actively investigating a wide variety of ways to utilize woody biomass, including twigs, pruned branches, and tree removals. Meanwhile, the dairy community has been exploring ways to expand use of manure nutrients across California’s diverse agricultural landscape.
“Creating valuable manure-based soil amendments is an area that the dairy sector has been focusing on, but there are some challenges,” said Denise Mullinax, Executive Director of the California Dairy Research Foundation (CDRF). “We know that farmers want a soil amendment with a consistent and reliable nutrient profile. It also needs to be easy to transport and apply. That’s why we are thrilled to support this team of esteemed researchers and to partner with the almond industry on this project. Together, we’re piloting a new avenue to enhance the benefits of both manure and woody biomass.”
The initial project was funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)’s Healthy Soils Program. As the project scope grew, the researchers were awarded additional funding from the demonstration category of CDFA’s Alternative Manure Management Program. With supplemental support from the CDRF and the Almond Board of California, the research project developed to include a team of more than 20 individuals—including researchers, farmers, and industry collaborators—contributing throughout a three-year timeframe. The project includes two seasons of creating soil amendments and applying them to the orchard, and three years of studying effects on soil health, emissions, tree health, and crop yield, while ensuring food safety.
Using composted manure from Wickstrom Dairies, the study will shine a light for future research on expanding and improving manure utilization. Like many California dairies, the farm uses a separator system to remove solids from liquid manure streams. The solids are then sun dried in rows that are turned over periodically, as a form of composting. Dried manure solids are traditionally used for bedding or are applied to dairy forage fields. For this study, a portion of the finer manure solids were co-composted with twigs from almond production and then ran through a pelletizer. Pelletizing the compost is intended to provide a more consistent blend, while creating an easy-to-use product. The pelletized compost product has now been applied to the pilot orchard for two consecutive seasons. Four treatments were used to examine differences in manure-only verses manure-twig and pelletized versus non-pelletized compost products.
“We look forward to seeing the final results,” said Mullinax. “Dr. Zhang and her team are demonstrating that it’s possible to make a pelletized product that is safe and easy to use, while fully assessing the environmental benefits. It’s projects like this that will pave the way for implementing advanced nutrient management on a larger scale, greatly enhancing soil health and further improving water conservation and protection.”
The research team highlighted the project by providing a virtual field day, and they plan to host another outreach event this fall. Research is scheduled to conclude in March 2022. However, longer-term effects on soil health will continue to be studied. And the final report will only be the beginning of more learnings to come.
Potential research areas to be explored next include applications on different kinds of crops, comparing a pelletized versus granulated product, and using varying types of dairy manure solids (from different types of separators, settling basins, and lagoon solids). Additionally, the use of infrared technology versus composting will be explored prior to pelletization or granulation. All options will also need to be assessed for cost-effectiveness and potential scalability.
The manure-twig project is part of a broader, collaborative effort to expand manure’s role in healthy soils. California dairy farmers will continue to work with researchers, state officials, and other agricultural professionals to find more ways to maximize manure’s role in building healthy soils and protecting our air, water, and climate. The possibilities for sustainable solutions are bright when farmers and scientists come together to make new use of existing resources and technologies.
California dairy farmers will continue partnering to help make an underutilized resource an important part of a healthy-soil future.
The new Board of Directors of the Almond Board of California (ABC) took their seats on Wednesday with five voting members – three of them new to the board – beginning new terms to help oversee ABC’s support of one of California’s most important agricultural crops.
Board members, whose terms officially began Aug. 1, also elected Brian Wahlbrink as chair and George Goshgarian Jr. as vice chair.
“This is a knowledgeable, talented board,” Wahlbrink said. “Our board members come from across our industry and around our state. They bring a great energy and an impressive range of experience, and we’re all eager to continue moving California almonds forward as one of the state’s most valuable and important crops.”
The 10-member board of ABC has five grower members – three representing independent growers and two representing growers working with cooperatives – and five handler members, also with three independents and two co-op reps.
The new grower representatives are:
The new handler representatives are:
In addition, the board has five new alternates:
The ABC board sets policy and recommends budgets to the Secretary of Agriculture in major areas including production research, public relations and advertising, nutrition research, statistical reporting, quality control and food safety.
About the Almond Board of California
ABC is a Federal Marketing Order dedicated to promoting California almonds to domestic and international audiences through marketing efforts and by funding and promoting research about almonds’ health benefits, efficient and sustainable farming, food safety and more. ABC works on behalf of the more than 7,600 almond growers and processors in California, many of whom are multi-generational family operations.
Almond Board of California — The California Almond Objective Measurement Report, published Monday by the United States Department of Agriculture-National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS), estimates that the 2021 crop will come in at 2.8 billion meat pounds, 10 percent below last year’s record of 3.1 billion pounds. (Editor’s Note: The steep decline in production this year comes as a big surprise with the May subjective forecast suggesting a larger crop at 3.2 billion pounds)
The drop comes during a very difficult water year across California and at a time when the almond industry is navigating a complex market with record shipments but with returns to growers down from recent years.
“The report still forecasts a really large crop, and it’s further proof that California is an ideal place to grow almonds, even in difficult times,” said Kent Stenderup, Chair of the Almond Board of California (ABC) Board of Directors. “It’s also a testament to the hard work of growers and their efforts to improve stewardship practices and meet the demands of consumers despite the hurdles we’re facing this year.”
The 2021 Objective Report’s forecast is 13 percent below the 2021 California Almond Subjective Forecast in May of 3.20 billion pounds. The forecast for the average nut set per tree is 4,619, down 18 percent from the 2020 almond crop. The Nonpareil average nut set is 4,512, down 20 percent from last year’s set. The average kernel weight for all varieties sampled was 1.46 grams, down 3 percent from the 2020 average weight.
“Shipment numbers show that the demand for California almonds continues to increase both in the U.S. and around the world,” said Almond Board President and CEO Richard Waycott. “The strong forecast means the California almond industry will keep up with that growing global demand with a steady supply of high quality almonds. With such strong demand, competition for the 2021 crop could lead to a much needed increase in the return to growers, which is currently below the cost of production due to the recent record crop.”
ABC’s June 2021 Position Report showed that both exports and total shipments increased the records set in May for a single crop year, while shipments within the U.S. are on pace for a record year. Through June, total shipments reached 2.67 billion pounds. The crop year ends July 31.
USDA-NASS conducts the annual Objective Report, Subjective Forecast and Acreage Report to provide the California almond industry with the data needed to make informed business decisions and it thanks all farm operators, owners and management entities for their time providing the information necessary to create these reports. These reports are the official industry crop estimates.
About the Almond Board of California
Almonds from California are a healthy, natural, wholesome and quality food. The Almond Board of California promotes almonds with a research-based approach to responsible farming, production and marketing on behalf of the more than 7,600 almond growers and processors in California, many of whom have third- and fourth-generation family operations. Established in 1950 and based in Modesto, California, the Almond Board of California is a non-profit organization that administers a grower-enacted Federal Marketing Order under the supervision of the United States Department of Agriculture. For more information on the Almond Board of California or California almonds, visit Almonds.com.
