Nut Talk

Huge almond crop again seen likely
Sacramento Business Journal - May 11, 2007
by Celia Lamb
California could have a record-high almond crop for the second year in a row, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of growers.
The agency issued a preliminary forecast for a 1.31 billion-pound crop, which would be 17 percent more than the 1.12 billion pounds last year.
The crop would come from 615,000 acres of almond orchards. Weather conditions were ideal for the crop this year, and there were enough bees to pollinate the crop. Some almond trees are so bountiful their limbs are bowing and splitting from the weight of the nuts, the agency reported.
The USDA surveyed 340 growers, whose crops account for about 27 percent of the total almond acreage in the state, from April 23 to May 2. The agency plans to follow up with a forecast based on crop sampling June 29.
Almonds were the No. 4 crop in Yolo County in 2005, based on a crop value of $31 million. More recent data for individual counties were not available.