The world's largest
almond-producing region is coming back in to full production after years of
drought. Rabobank senior vice president and agricultural economist Vernon
Crowder said California's almond crop was increasing after reduced water
availability led to lower production.
Mr Crowder said the increase in
nut supply would impact prices, but he was not predicting a dramatic fall in
the crop's worth. He said the industry was bouncing back, but Australia could
benefit from the lessons the American industry had had to learn around soil and
water availability for almonds during drought.
"California obviously has a
lock on the world market. We have 80 per cent, sometimes a little bit more, of
the total almond production … we are still driving the market in terms of
prices and availability," he said. "That forced down the production
and therefore the price had to go to record high levels just to ration the crop
throughout the world.
"We find the current prices,
even though they are off significantly from the highs of the last two years,
are still very profitable prices, especially with a large crop."
Negative nut press has not hurt industry
During the American drought,
negative press about the water used to grow almonds turned some consumers
against the nuts. Mr Crowder said while this was a factor, it had not had a
long-lasting impact on almond consumption.
"The initial reaction was
really the frustration the consumers had with the conservations they were being
obliged to do," he said. "The publicity was very bad initially. The
Almond Board in California actually did a very good job of answering some of
those questions.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au
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