One of Blue Diamond ’s big leaps forward continues to be in our Orchard Stewardship Incentive Program (OSIP). It might interest you to know that 40% of Blue Diamond acres are now enrolled in this program. To date, these growers have already earned $1.75 million in incentives for their efforts. This year, with significant thoughtfulness and validation, we published Blue Diamond ’s first sustainability report. We are proud of all the demonstrated progress we have made in sustainability and our efforts to build a compelling plan for the future. As a result of these efforts, the USDA awarded Blue Diamond a $45 million grant! Every great success requires leadership, and we are blessed with true sustainability leaders such as: VP of Membership, Mel Machado, Director of Sustainability, Dr. Dan Sonke, and Director of Government Relations, Alicia Rockwell. Thank you for your sustainability leadership. Six years ago in my presentation, I made the bold claim that Blue Diamond aspired to make Amazon one of our top five customers. At the time, it was not even in the top 75. Two years ago, with a little help from COVID shopping, we achieved our goal ahead of schedule. Good news! Amazon noticed our tremendous progress and we are now part of the Amazon Vendor Flex Program. Amazon Vendor Flex is an Amazon warehouse within a Blue Diamond warehouse from which we ship directly creating significant savings to Blue Diamond and strengthening our relationship with Amazon. Over many years, we have been planting the seeds of growth. We have built great partnerships in strategic markets around the globe. Last year, continuing a trend in international markets, we were fortunate to drive 17% growth! Almond Breeze ® has success stories in Asian, South American and European markets, and we received tremendous retail support. For their effort in bringing our Almond Breeze ® to world, I’d like to thank Dale Tipple and the entire International Retail team.
As you know, our Blue Diamond mission, our reason for being, is to maximize returns for you, our growers. Your faith in giving us your year’s work in the form of the almond crop is a tremendous responsibility. I have always considered our higher purpose, as a co-op, is to provide sustainable economics that allow our farm families to pass their farms to the next generation. This is especially important when almond prices are in a low cycle and your farming costs continue to rise. In this environment, our team members know that every penny matters. Our commitment has always been, and will always be, to continue to focus on how we can deliver better returns. When I started at Blue Diamond , the goal was to simply achieve competitive returns. Blue Diamond enjoyed a good track record of beating the competitive handlers by $.01 a pound. For the 2010 return, with a $.03 advantage, I vividly remember the many calls of congratulations, mostly saying, “Great return, Mark!” You, our growers, inspired the entire team to set the bar higher. Some will recall the goal of a dime, then $.15. For the 2020 crop, we cleared $.20. Knowing how important every penny is to our growers in this environment, for the 2021 crop, we set a new standard with a record $.27 advantage. Equally important, your total final payment represents an increase of $.20 a pound versus last year. When I was interviewing for the CEO role at Blue Diamond , our then board chair, Clinton Shick asked, “Mark, if selected, how long would you serve as CEO ? ” I responded, “10 years would be ideal.” Then my thinking was that 10 years is much longer than average, yet not to the point of staying too long. The first nine years flew by as we were committed to transforming this co-op into a global branded food company. Then came the great Sacramento plant fire. It was not the right time. There was way too much work to be done. In my 10 th year, the COVID pandemic began, and we focused on how to keep team members safe and plants running. To me, this was a leadership calling that was the most important of my business career. Clearly, it was not the right time.
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NOVEMBER–DECEMBER 2022
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