PRESIDENT’S CORNER
I can hardly believe that summer is just around the corner. It’s been great to connect with many of you throughout these past couple of months. Whether you were able to catch the webinar update with Mel Machado, Laura Gerhard, and me, or joined us at the Grower Liaison Committee meetings, it’s important that we stay connected on all things happening at Blue Diamond. We are all working hard to ensure our success in these tough market conditions. I am committed to strengthening our lines of communication and ensuring that we keep you up to date on our growth plans.
I wasn’t the only one on the road; I know some of you had the opportunity to meet Carmen Bourgaize, our Chief Commercial Officer, at several of the Grower Liaison Committee meetings. You may recall Carmen was unable to attend the Annual Grower Meeting last November because she was hard at work selling your almonds and building relationships with potential customers. Carmen has extensive experience when it comes to managing commercial functions, as well as deep knowledge of the market, consumer behavior and strategic planning. I hope you had the chance to engage with her and discuss what’s on your mind. Carmen and her team are leading the charge to bring more Blue Diamond almonds to customers everywhere. Our new Thin Dipped Almonds range is reaching across U.S. retailers and will soon be available in over 1,400 Albertson’s stores starting in June, and expanding to 500 additional locations this fall. You can also keep an eye out for Thin Dipped Almonds landing at 7-Eleven locations near you this summer. In early May, members of the sales team and I attended the INC World Nut & Dried Fruit Congress 2024 in Vancouver, Canada. The INC conference gathers professionals, experts, researchers and stakeholders from around the world to discuss various aspects of the industry, including production, processing, marketing, health benefits, innovation and sustainability. It was great to be there, especially because
we are growing and expanding our product lines in the Canadian market. In fact, just this week, Walmart Canada listed our new range of mid-size bags. We couldn’t be more excited to introduce Canadian shoppers to our popular Smokehouse, Honey Roasted and Wasabi & Soy flavors this August. I will share more on some of our wins in Canada in the coming months. I know many of you joined us for the Masters Meeting in April and received important updates directly from industry leaders. We are keeping a close eye on the crop this year given the plentiful April showers and unexpected hail in some parts of the valley. We know that many growers have battled with the inclement weather, making it difficult to tend to the orchards. Based on the most recent Land IQ estimates, we have seen a decrease in the total acreage of land where almond trees are growing compared to the last few years. Plantings of new orchards have diminished in recent years, due to the challenging times all of you in the almond industry are enduring. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) also released their Subject Crop Forecast for the 2024 almond crop, and based on the same acreage as last year, they have forecast that 3.0 billion pounds of almonds will be harvested. Mel Machado tells me that the new crop appears to be developing well ahead of last year’s.
Kai Bockmann President & CEO
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ALMOND FACTS
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