IN YOUR ORCHARD
Additionally, trees are a huge contributor to the industry’s positive carbon footprint, which is another significant piece to stewardship. “Our trees collectively have already captured 30 million metric tons of carbon in this state. That’s like taking 24 million cars — all the passenger cars in California, Oregon, Washington, and Texas combined — off the road,” says Turner. Data shows that consumers find environmental stewardship to be an important value proposition in their eating experience. Josette Lewis, Chief Scientific Officer at ABC said many brands, including California almonds, are latching onto that. “Sixty percent of the new products that were introduced in the last year had environmental messaging as part of them,” Lewis said. “We have a great story to tell about the work that you do in your orchards.” Expanding Innovation and Marketing Program Between its sustainability benefits and versatility in new food products, almonds have immense potential within the food innovation space. In fact, in 2023, almond ingredients were included in 14,000 new food products. Seeing that, ABC is investing in ways to continue keeping almonds top of mind for food industry experts. They’ve partnered up with chefs, high schools, colleges, and the Culinary Institute of America to explore new opportunities and are capitalizing on the incredible health benefits of almonds (https://bit.ly/40qoqHg), which remains the number one reason why consumers eat almonds. ABC, in collaboration with the Almond Alliance, also scored a win for the industry (https://bit.ly/40GVrQQ) by getting almond products included in the guidelines for the Women, Infants, and Children program (WIC), serving over 6 million people every month. At last year’s conference, ABC introduced a study it had been working on with Deloitte Consulting to assess emerging markets and determine a clear vision forward for target markets. The project evaluated over 100 countries, narrowed down to 11 key markets, and
eventually concluded that the industry should double down on core markets like the U.S. and India, especially after seeing 21% growth in India over the last year. India was already in ABC’s portfolio, but Deloitte’s feedback provided more details on why there must be a deeper investment within their younger demographic (https://bit.ly/4hq4pav), since 65% of India’s population is under 35. The study also emphasized developing a long-term growth plan for emerging markets including Turkey (https://bit.ly/3EiOnko), Morocco, and Indonesia, and staff has been working to understand these countries and assess what resonates with those audiences. One marketing program that has seen consistent return on investment is the Own Your Prime campaign, now in its second year. ABC’s partnership with former NFL star Deion Sanders (https://bit.ly/40uoHJ6), also known as Coach Prime, has performed exceedingly well. As Coach Prime’s presence gains more traction in mainstream media, so do California almonds. “He delivered 10 times greater media impressions than any previous ABC spokesperson,” said Emily Fleischmann, Vice President, Global Market Development at ABC. “We’ve seen this turn into consumer action. An in-store promotion with Kroger (https://bit.ly/4ap5htX), which is the second largest retail chain in the nation, had a 42% increase in new buyers.” Our trees collectively have already captured 30 million metric tons of carbon in this state. That’s like taking 24 million cars — all the passenger cars in California, Oregon, Washington, and Texas combined — off the road. —Clarice Turner, President & CEO, ABC
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ALMOND FACTS
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