The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service said its latest almond forecast is a 2.8 billion meat pounds, which is 13% higher than last year’s crop of 2.47 billion meat pounds but down 7% from its May forecast.
The USDA said the forecast is based on reporting from 1.38 million bearing acres.
The forecast for nonpareil, which is 39% of the state’s total almond production, is 1.1 billion meat pounds; that is 17% higher than last year’s 941 million meat pounds.
USDA said these figures are due to favorable weather conditions during bloom, which began the second week in February and finished by the middle of March. USDA also reports bee hours to be higher than last year.
Wet and warm weather in April increased disease and pest pressure, but May featured dry conditions and mild temperatures. While heat waves in June and July required growers to increase irrigation, the USDA said it expects harvest to be on schedule.
As part of the forecast, USDA NASS said the average nut-set per tree increased by 3% over last year, at about 4,072 per tree. The average nonpareil nut set is also 3% higher than last year at 4,137 per tree. Average kernel weight is down 4% from the 2023 average at 1.61 grams. The average kernel weight for nonpareil is 1.64 grams, which is down 3% from the average weight for 2023.
USDA-NASS said a total of 98.9% of all nuts sized were sound.
