<p>At the moment, the province of Almeria's registered almond acreage amounts to ​​50,844 hectares, of which 49,855 are rainfed and 989 are irrigated, as explained by the director of the OCA, who highlighted the remarkable development of this crop in the region of Los Vélez, which has an area of ​​18,450 hectares, of which 18,244 are rainfed and 206 are irrigated. The Director of OCA Los Vélez, Juan Ortiz, explained this during a technical workshop about the crop's cultivation held in Chirivel. Ortiz stressed that Los Vélez is the engine behind the crop's development in Almeria, with a noteworthy boom of organic cultivation. The region, in fact, has the world's largest organic almond acreage, representing over 60% of the above figures.The encouraging market prospects in the medium term, especially in the case of organic almonds, were also revealed during the event. "Proof of this is that nurseries are currently unable to meet the demand for almond seedlings, with reservations already made for the coming years," stated Ortiz.Ortiz also reported that the goal of the conference was to answer some of the questions often posed by producers in the region with regard to the cultivation of nuts, the varieties best adapted to the area, the market outlook, the technical criteria for growing almonds and the implementation of the CAP reform for the period between 2015 and 2020.<br></p>