Going Nuts Over Almonds, USDA Predicts Record-Breaking Crop

WOODLAND (CBS13) — California loves its beautiful almond blossoms, but this year's harvest goes well beyond beauty. The United States Department of Agriculture projects the California crop to hit three billion pounds for the first time ever.

"I think it's fantastic that we can produce this type of crop," said Treehouse Almonds spokesperson Brian Tormey.

Tormey calls it a perfect storm.

"We had a wonderful winter, plenty of water, and then the perfect bloom. We had stellar sunshine throughout the month of bloom," said Tormey.

That echoes what growers are saying. The USDA projection is based on a telephone survey of 500 farmers, all pointing to successful pollination of honeybees following a dry stretch of weather in February and March.

But it hasn't come without challenges, including new protocols to keep workers safe during the pandemic and now concerns over being able to ship to other countries.

"We're gonna have a bit of a difficulty moving this crop when you have such a lockdown coming out of the economic problems around the world, but almonds are a nutritious healthy product," said Tormey.

So consumers are still bound to reap the benefits of a record almond forecast in health and lower prices at the store.

"We haven't seen prices like this since probably 2016 which was the last time we had it in this range," said Tormey.