Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1084285
2 The Almond Board of California: Year in Review and a Look Ahead FROM LEADERSHIP also restructured its management and committees to best support these expanded research undertakings. All in all, crop year 2017/18 was a very exciting time in the lab and in the markets around the world. And, I expect that this crop year will see continued momentum in these areas. ABC's official crop estimate for 2018/19 is 2.45 billion pounds, which represents an increase of 8% over last year. As this year's crop receipts continue to be tallied, we'll understand how close to the estimated crop our deliveries will come. Regardless of the final number, we will have plenty of nuts to market this year, and the initial evaluation of insect damage is down appreciably from the spike that we experienced last year. We are dealing with the impact, however, of the retaliatory tariffs that have been implemented by a few of our foreign markets. These tariffs caused a certain amount of buyer uncertainty and hesitancy that has affected some of the shipment and commitment numbers in the initial months of the crop year. The good news here is that the California almond business has done an excellent job of diversifying its customer base to over 90 countries, and history has shown that when one country or region of the world has a decline in demand, other regions of the world step up to the plate. I'm confident that we will have a successful marketing year again in 2018/19. Dear Industry Members, I am excited to be including this letter in the inaugural edition of the Almond Board of California's (ABC) newest communication vehicle, How We Grow, which replaces the long- published California Almond Outlook. How We Grow will be distributed every other month and will contain important research findings and critical content focused on the future of almond growing and the industry. I can assure you that much thought will be given to the content of each issue and its relevancy to industry members. In reviewing the 2017/18 crop year, we hit lots of home runs from several perspectives, not the least of which were record production and record shipments. It was also a year in which ABC invested the additional revenue derived from the temporary assessment increase to develop new markets, enhance existing markets and to push the envelope on our research efforts to accelerate agricultural innovation. On the market development front, ABC opened three new markets and continues to study a fourth. Fully integrated marketing programs were launched in Italy and Mexico, and a trade and public relations program was launched in Japan. We continue to study market opportunities in Brazil and Argentina. Regarding existing markets, investments increased quite dramatically in Germany, China and the U.S. Promotional dollars were invested for the first time in the almond milk category in the U.S., and public relations and advertising coverage expanded in China. In Germany, we are targeting consumers with a new focus on featuring California almonds as a healthy snack. We trust that all our market development activities will result in long-term gains in consumption. Our agricultural research programs also witnessed a ramp up in investment and activity across a wide swath of investigative topics. Additional research efforts are being made in many areas including pollination, biomass, soil health, harvest dust, rootstocks and much more. In the past year, ABC Richard Waycott President and CEO Almond Board of California