California almond growers are facing similar price troubles as Midwest row-crop farmers. A predicted record almond harvest will drop prices again this year as the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects the harvest to reach 2.05 billion pounds for the 2016-17 crop year. The harvest projection represents an eight percent increase from a year ago and a slight increase from the 2011-12 crop year record of 2.03 billion pounds. USDA says that while many areas are still under drought, trees have shown signs of recovery from multiple years of water deprivation. The increase in production may put negative pressure on prices received by growers. After a strong year of production, for example, grower prices fell from $4.00 per pound in 2014-15 to $2.84 per pound in 2015-16. Last year’s almond crop was worth $5.33 billion. However, with prices high relative to long-term averages, USDA says almond producers still have an incentive to increase production.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.