Almonds are delicious alone as a nutritious snack, and they are a prime ingredient in home kitchens and in food manufacturing. Almonds enhance virtually every food they grace with their distinctive taste and satisfying crunch. California is the only place in North America where almonds are grown commercially. In the past 30 years, California's almond yield has quadrupled. More than 480,000 acres in the lush San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys are under almond cultivation, stretching 400 miles between Bakersfield and Red Bluff, California.
Almonds are California's largest tree nut crop in total dollar value and acreage.
They rank as the largest U.S. Horticultural export. Approximately 6,000 almond growers produce 100 percent of the commercial domestic supply and more than 75 percent of worldwide production. Nearly 80 countries import California almonds. Overseas, Germany is the largest market for almonds, consuming about 20 percent of the export crop, followed by Spain at about 13 percent. Other major importers include the Netherlands, Japan, France, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, China and Spain.