Almonds & cherries affected most by California's cold spring

California was experiencing a warm winter until recently, when cooler temperatures and rain brought about a cold start to spring. While this has caused a slowdown in the production of numerous current crops, growers of spring crops are waiting to see as to what extent their crops have suffered. Almond and cherry growers seem to have been the worst hit, and growers will be assessing the damage over the next few weeks. Almonds in particular are a high value crop for California, and the state is also a significant producer.

Almond growers will be assessing their orchards over the next couple of weeks. Losses are likely, but it's too early to put any numbers in terms of volume. California's almond producers had been looking forward to a favorable season up until the cold weather hit.

"Almond crops have definitely seen some damage," said Eddie Hernandez of Del Mar Farms. "Over the next 2 weeks, farmers will be walking the orchards and producing estimates as to the extent of any losses. Early predictions are pointing to anywhere between a 5% - 18% downgrade on volumes. What is known is that the West side appears to have been less affected when compared with areas towards the East and South. It's disappointing as we were set up to have a great bloom and there was good early momentum in the market."

Dawn Sanders, of DePalma Farms, agreed, observing that farmers further out appear to be most affected. She also noted that stone fruit seems to have escaped any significant damage, with the exception of cherries. "Some farmers have lost a lot of their crop," she said. "We have heard that growers out in places like Le Grand, Montpelier and Oakdale look to have suffered most, but it will be a couple of more weeks yet until this can be assessed more accurately. The good news is that later stone fruit varieties appear to be undamaged, although there have been reports on damage to the cherry crop."

While other stone fruit such as peaches and nectarines have not been as badly affected as first thought, cherry growers are concerned as initial inspections have indicated frost damage. Growers will be performing more thorough assessments ahead of a meeting between them in the next couple of weeks. 

"We're still figuring things out but the rain and cold has definitely had an impact," said Justin Bedwell of Bari Produce. "There has been freeze damage and some growers are estimating up to 50 percent losses already. Continued rain and cold weather is delaying proper inspections but we hope to get out early next week and walk the fields. Some of the apricots also will be checked, depending on what stage they're at in the bloom. At this stage, it looks as though other stone fruit has not been affected as badly."

"Cherries are the most effected as the frost came at a bad time," Bedwell added. "Next week, growers will be gathering for a meeting where we will discuss more accurate figures. Until the fruit can be physically inspected, we won't know for sure."

Rain will persist in California this week and into the weekend.

For more information:

Eddie Hernandez

Tel: +1 (209) 894-5555

Dawn Sanders

Tel: +1 (209) 838-7034

Justin Bedwell

Tel: +1 (559) 560-5600