Nuttier Than Before

Almond lovers’ two long years of discontent are near an end.

In 1995, after a disastrous winter and spring, which hit growers with everything from chilly damp weather that hindered pollination to high winds and floods that destroyed more than 5% of the state’s orchards, California’s almond production fell to almost half the previous year’s output.

Because the state grows about 70% of the world’s almond supply in a good year, that was a shortfall felt around the globe. Almond prices almost doubled.

Last year the slow rebound began, as production increased from 1995’s low of fewer than 370 million pounds to almost 510 million pounds. It was still far short of the record 735 million pounds harvested in 1994, but it was a start.

It’s still early going for this year’s harvest--picking just started a couple of weeks ago--but the California Agricultural Statistics Service is predicting a crop of 680 million pounds. If the prediction is accurate, 1997 would be the second-biggest harvest ever.

“1995 was a disastrous crop, and 1996 was still mediocre,” says Dave Baker, director of member relations for Blue Diamond, California’s largest almond growers’ cooperative. “In fact, 1993 wasn’t very good for us either, which makes exactly one good crop out of the last four.

“This year, it looks like we’ll have an excellent crop, and do we need it. After the last couple of years, almond stocks are basically depleted. This will fill up a lot of pipelines in the world. Already, we’re starting to see prices moderating.”

In fact, prices to growers, which had soared as high as $2.50 a pound in 1995, should be between $1.50 and $1.70 this year.

Those lower prices, Baker says, should still be a real boon to farmers.

“There are two reasons,” he says. “First, I think it’s still a real good price for the grower, especially with the kind of tonnage they’ll be producing. This year should see a good cash flow, and that’s what a grower needs.

“The other thing it does is encourage users in the world to go back and use as many almonds as they have in the past. It helps to increase consumption and encourages manufacturers to come up with new products, which we need in order to sell larger crops in future.”

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Good buys in the produce department this week include tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplant, corn and the usual summer fruit: peaches, plums and nectarines, table grapes and melons. Watch lettuce carefully. Because of last week’s heat wave, check for wilting and brown tips.

Carolyn Olney of the Southland Farmers Market Assn. reports that Peacock Family Farms sells Rosa Bianca eggplant, a variety that is especially creamy when cooked, at the Wednesday Santa Monica, Thursday Redondo Beach, Saturday Santa Barbara and Sunday Hollywood markets.