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Almond maker David Phippen didn’t want to hear the latest predictions from agricultural economists to know that his industry was about to squander its leading position in the global market.
He saw it coming with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when ocean carriers found they could make twice as many annual circular trips, and higher profit margins, by sending empty boxes to Asia to pick up more goods to export. to wait at the port here to be loaded with your almonds. Almond exports have fallen about thirteen percent this year, industry officials said.
“It’s all about money,” said Phippen, 72, as he shook his head in frustration on a recent hot, sticky morning. “After years of shared prosperity, foreign ships no longer have to serve us. “
Now, the powerful almond industry is in serious trouble. About 7600 California farms produce 82% of the world’s almonds. But they don’t get paid until their product is shipped to strong markets like the European Union, China, India, and the United Arab Emirates.
As a result, the prospect of raising £2800 million this year, less than £2900 million in 2021 and record £3100 million in 2020, excites and worries industry executives. in processing and packaging facilities.
The challenge comes at a time when inflation and a historic drought are pushing production and water source prices to a record high, and the value of almonds has fallen to an all-time low of around $2 per pound.
It’s a sharp turnaround after 4 decades of relentless expansion on 1. 6 million acres in California’s agricultural Central Valley, from Tehama County to southern Fresno County.
“We are experiencing a delivery and coin crisis,” said Aubrey Bettencourt, executive leader of the Almond Alliance of California. not to enter our communities. “
“If we can’t solve this problem,” he added, “our products will be replaced by anything else. “
This is one that David Phippen and his brother Scott, travail partners.
“The most important thing about consumers around the world in those days,” said Scott Phippen, 68, “is, when will we have our almonds?”
The bottleneck at the Port of Oakland, traditionally the main gateway for central California dry topping and walnuts bound for foreign markets, is expected to drag on for months.
The news, as the growers point out, is that nutritious oval-shaped nuts have a shelf life of about two years.
As part of an effort to be defeated through new crops expected to arrive in September, the Phippens are building a 40,000-square-foot warehouse and recently paid about $800,000 for 3,000 new wooden garage containers.
Inside a nearby processing plant, staff dressed in gloves and hair nets inspected the rivers of almonds flowing along the conveyor belts before packing them for shipment.
“We have a lot of almonds,” said David Phippen. The challenge is to get them to other people who will pay for them. “
Crunchy nuts have evolved a lot since California pioneers in 1850 planted their first almond trees in Sacramento, Monterey and Los Angeles.
The nut wasn’t a snack until 1968, when a cooperative persuaded American Airlines to purchase Blue Diamond Smokehouse almonds to use as in-flight snacks.
Blue Diamond’s good fortune temporarily attracted other almond corporations to the snack market and opened the door to a galaxy of cutting-edge products: almond butter, almond shaving cream, almond-flavored champagne, protein-rich almond milk, almond ice cream, candy and cookies, even almond oil suitable for sunbathing and frying fish.
Attracted by the product that doesn’t spoil and doesn’t require much labor, almond trees planted 74,000 hectares in the late 1970s.
Today, the Golden State harvests walnuts on an 800-mile stretch of farmland that made almonds California’s most sensible agricultural export in 2021 at $4. 7 billion, 3 times more than in the 1990s.
This year, as the state’s agricultural hub goes through a third year of drought, farmers have to make tough decisions about abandoning thirsty permanent crop orchards that need water year-round.
The 2021 drought cost California’s agricultural sector an estimated $1. 1 billion and nearly 8,750 full-time jobs, according to recent research by UC Merced researchers.
On some other front, manufacturers are receiving assistance from the state and federal governments to identify new and more reliable shipping strategies. US Gulf Coast
Last month, leaders partnered with railroad corporations to create a small experimental “ephemeral” agricultural terminal in the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex.
“We have to go where there are ships that will bring our products,” Bettencourt said. “So, it’s all on board the new almond trains that are coming to the port of Los Angeles. “
The demanding situations facing almond growers are testing the limits of compassion among environmentalists who have long criticized their industry’s inordinate role in exploiting the arid region’s water supplies. The industry responds that water will generate more than 100,000 jobs statewide and compete in a global market flooded with reasonable foreign crops.
The debate is not new. Over the decades, as the Central Valley has the most productive agricultural region in the world, environmentalists, manufacturers, and politicians have addressed water disruptions and the duration of water-intensive almond, pistachio, hazelnut and walnut farms.
According to industry reports, almond orchards account for less than thirteen percent of the state’s irrigated farmland and use nine percent of the state’s agricultural water.
But at a time when Gov. Gavin Newsom is asking Californians to voluntarily use up to 15 percent water, critics say it still takes 1. 1 gallons of water to grow an almond, and growing a pound of almonds takes about 1,900 gallons of water. .
“California’s climate is irrevocably becoming the midst of the worst drought in history,” said Jessica Gable, a spokeswoman for the nonprofit food and water watchdog group.
David Phippen goes so far.
After all, global demand for almonds remains strong, especially at lower prices. I would rather wait and see how the 2022 harvest evolves in the coming months.
“Call me optimistic,” he said, “but things seem to be looking up a bit. “
This story gave the impression in the Los Angeles Times.