The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service has released the 2022 California Almond Objective Measurement Report. Projections for the 2022 crop are 11 percent lower than last year, coming in at 2.6 billion meat pounds. Almond Board of California President and CEO Richard Waycott said in a more average year there may be some uneasiness about the crop coming down from the three-billion-pound mark. However, the year of logistical issues and transportation challenges has created more of a backlog of inventory than normal.
“This will help take a little pressure off and I think if the trends continue, and the shipping logistics get back into line more with where we’ve been traditionally, we should be able to ship the supply without any problem in the coming year and hopefully see better pricing for our growers,” said Waycott. “I’m not saying all will be rosy again right away, but I think things will definitely improve.”
The objective measurement highlights ongoing drought conditions along with frost events having a negative impact on crop development. Producers have steadily been working to overcome what Waycott describes as one of the “most daunting times” the industry has gone through in quite a while. One bright spot for the industry is the success seen with marketing efforts. Almond demand remains strong in export markets, as evidenced by new export shipment records being set in April and May.
“We’re seeing some improvement for sure, little by little. But because of what went on for the last 12 months we’ve created this huge backlog,” Waycott noted. “So, we’ve got to work through those issues and having a slightly lower crop for 2022 will help a bit in terms of overall supply and taking that down a little bit.”
The objective measurement report is available here.
Listen to Waycott’s interview below.
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