<p></p><p>In California, harvest of what's been forecast as a record almond crop is underway, and growers say despite prices having dropped from their peaks a year ago, they see good market prospects for this year's crop.The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated the state's 900,000 bearing acres will produce 2.05 billion pounds of almonds this season. That's up nearly 8 percent from last year and larger than the record 2.03 billion-pound crop of 2011. <br></p> <p>After almond prices fell by nearly half last year, growers and others in the business say the market is now stabilizing and almond sales have picked up. Reduced prices, in turn, have helped to revive demand for almonds, with record shipments in the last three months, said Richard Waycott, president and CEO of the Almond Board of California."We're ending the (marketing) year on a major upswing in terms of demand and volume," he said. "It looks like that will carry over well into the coming year." <br></p> <p>With improved yields on existing orchards, new trees coming into production and growers expanding almond acreage by 2 to 3 percent a year, Waycott said the USDA estimate appears to be "a pretty good number."But he agreed that despite increasing almond acreage, production in the last several years declined or remained static "primarily due to drought-related factors." <br></p> <p>"If we went into this year with less stress on those trees, I think the crop would be bigger," said David Doll, University of California Cooperative Extension pomology farm advisor. "I think the reason we're probably going to break the record is we really have a lot more acreage."Whereas the 2011 record crop yielded the highest per acre in the state's modern production history, Doll described this year's crop as "just good." The biggest difference between this year and last year, he said, is the amount of surface water flowing to trees on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley, noting that irrigation districts in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and to the north have received their full contracted allocations this year. <br></p> <p>Meanwhile, farmers on the west side of the valley continue to struggle with water scarcity, with many of them also dealing with high salinity in groundwater that's damaging the health of their trees. For those farmers, Doll said, this year is actually worse than last year, in that they're facing yet another year of little or no surface water. <br></p> <p>At the average going rate of $2.50 a pound for the premium nonpareils, Jim Jasper, owner and president of Stewart and Jasper Orchards, an almond grower and processor in Stanislaus County, said the price level is "still profitable" for farmers and allows them to "produce a lot of almonds and fill a lot of markets." <br></p> <p>"Personally, I thought the price a year ago got way too high and wasn't sustainable," he said. "It was very evident that it wasn't going to stay there." <br></p> <p>Waycott described high almond prices, coupled with the strength of the dollar as "a double whammy," leading some price-sensitive markets overseas to pull back on almond imports, while U.S. demand also dipped.As to having to market a potentially larger crop this year, Waycott said he does not consider any of the current markets "as being mature," noting that in key markets such as North America and western Europe, there's still "a long way to go" in raising per capita consumption. <br></p> <p>Development of new products using almonds continues to help make market inroads, Waycott said. He noted the "phenomenon" of almond beverages in western Europe, Asia and Australia, while almond flour and almond butter are becoming more prevalent in markets worldwide. Also, for the first time this year, almonds became the most frequently used nut ingredient in chocolate products in Europe, a market previously dominated by hazelnuts and peanuts.<br></p><p></p>