California almond harvest on its way to new record

SACRAMENTO

July 6, 2016 12:36pm

•  Growers may harvest 2.05 Billion pounds of nut meats

•  Could edge past 2011-2012 record

Despite a fifth year of drought baking California, the state’s almond growers seem to have enough water to set a new record for harvesting the tasty nuts.

California's 2016 almond production is forecast at 2.05 billion meat pounds, up 2.5 percent from May's subjective forecast and up 7.9 percent from last year's crop, according to a survey conducted by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

If the number is reached, it will edge the record harvest of the 2011-2012 crop of 2.03 billion pounds.

This year’s forecast is based on 900,000 bearing acres. Production for the “Nonpareil” variety is forecast at 780 million meat pounds, up 7.4 percent from last year’s deliveries. The Nonpareil variety represents 38 percent of California’s total almond production.

The 2016 California almond crop began bloom in mid-February, after the winter provided better chill hours than last year. Bloom conditions were good; bloom was reportedly fast and uniform, the NASS report says.

“Precipitation this year was significantly better than in 2015. Many areas are still in drought, although trees showed signs of recovery from the last few years of insufficient water,” the report says.

The average nut set per tree is 6,159, up 4.9 percent from 2015. The Nonpareil average nut set of 5,583 is up 6.6 percent from last year’s set of 5,239.

The average kernel weight for all varieties sampled was 1.48 grams, up 3.5 percent from the 2015 average weight of 1.43 grams.

The Nonpareil average kernel weight was 1.65, up 2.5 percent from last year. A total of 98.8 percent of all nuts sized were sound.

http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=30838