Select Harvest out of Turlock bills itself as “the largest independent in-shell packer in the state of California,” supplying almonds to industrial users, confectioners, and retailers from its processing plant in the San Joaquin Valley.

“With a grower base throughout California, we’re among the top ten handlers in the state and can provide in-shell product in any variety of almonds,” said CEO Bob Nunes, who admits his goal is to be the leading handler, processor, and marketer of California almonds.

Keeping track of the “what variety” from “where” and “how many” is imperative and Select Harvest does so in a detailed monthly report beginning each August when details begin to start adding up for the new crop year.

With end-of-season and end-of-year numbers being crunched throughout the tree nut industry, a more definitive picture is being painted in the almond sector.

Blue Diamond Growers Almond Industry News Digest, published in mid-November and written by Vice President Laura Gerhard, reported “prevalent insect damage” and the notation: ”Many in the industry are now forecasting a crop closer to 2.45 billion pounds.”

“Strength from exports continue to drive shipments while domestic shipment numbers are slightly off last year’s pace. The mid- and smaller-size kernels are in short supply this crop year.  The industry needs to keep building on the positive momentum with strong shipments and new sales for the first quarter of the crop year to continue to draw down the carryout.”

A slow start

“The crop year got off to a slow start because of weather interruptions,” added Nunes, noting receipts-to-date through mid-December were 1.87 billion pounds or 13% less than the same time last year. “The crop won’t fulfill early expectations from NASS at 2.6 billion pounds with speculation dipping to 2.3-2.4 billion and it appears we’ll probably be at the low end of those estimates, although December should prove to be a good shipment month.”

Blue Diamond executives have called the 2023 crop “extraordinarily challenging for growers” and Nunes agrees. “It was difficult from the standpoint that the crop was late and there were a lot of issues in the field. To add insult to injury, it was probably the worst quality year I’ve seen in I can’t remember when. Typically, serious damage runs somewhere under 2%. This year we’re over 4%. That hurts grower’s grades and their returns and it’s harder in the processing.”

A similar observation dealing with rejects comes from the Almond Board of California Industry Summary Quality Control Report.

Through early November, ABC noted that among the 30 varieties inspected, the total rejection rate of all varieties among the 1.3-1.4 billion pounds examined was 3.99%.

Varieties displayed a wide array of rejection rates, from the two heavy hitters --- Nonpareil with 4.48% turndowns and Independence at 2.74%, other hard-hit categories included Mixed varieties (8.7%), Monarch (8.59%), Tokyo (6.87%), Bennett-Hickman (5.62%) and Livingston (5.03%).

Winding up with the fewest rejects were Padre (1.32%), Mission (1.5%), Price (1.57%), and Shasta (1.82%).

ABC and USDA inspection figures show that 56.9 million tons were declared inedible (with final year-end tally numbers still to come).