California almond acreage continues to rise

California’s 2017 almond acreage is estimated at 1.33 million acres, up 7% from the 2016 acreage of 1.24 million acres.

California’s 2017 almond acreage is estimated at 1.33 million acres, up 7% from the 2016 acreage of 1.24 million acres.

The numbers come from an annual report by the Pacific Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Of the total acreage, 1 million acres were bearing and 330,000 acres were non-bearing, with preliminary bearing acreage for 2018 estimated at 1.07 million acres, according to report.

The report includes detailed data by variety, year planted and county, which is primarily collected through a voluntary survey of nearly 6,000 California almond growers.

That data shows five California counties have 73% of the total bearing acreage: Kern, Fresno, Stanislaus, Merced and Madera.

The leading almond variety continues to be nonpareil, followed by monterey, butte, carmel and padre.

The report is funded by the Almond Board of California. See the full report here.

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