<p>The world's largest almond-producing region is coming back in to full production after years of drought. Rabobank senior vice president and agricultural economist Vernon Crowder said California's almond crop was increasing after reduced water availability led to lower production.Mr Crowder said the increase in nut supply would impact prices, but he was not predicting a dramatic fall in the crop's worth. He said the industry was bouncing back, but Australia could benefit from the lessons the American industry had had to learn around soil and water availability for almonds during drought. <br></p> <p>"California obviously has a lock on the world market. We have 80 per cent, sometimes a little bit more, of the total almond production … we are still driving the market in terms of prices and availability," he said. "That forced down the production and therefore the price had to go to record high levels just to ration the crop throughout the world."We find the current prices, even though they are off significantly from the highs of the last two years, are still very profitable prices, especially with a large crop." <br></p> <p><b>Negative nut press has not hurt industry</b></p> <p>During the American drought, negative press about the water used to grow almonds turned some consumers against the nuts. Mr Crowder said while this was a factor, it had not had a long-lasting impact on almond consumption."The initial reaction was really the frustration the consumers had with the conservations they were being obliged to do," he said. "The publicity was very bad initially. The Almond Board in California actually did a very good job of answering some of those questions.<br></p>