<p>Victorian-grown almonds, one of the biggest success stories in Australian horticulture, are proving a hit both at home and abroad. Official figures for the 2013-14 financial year reveal the healthy shape of an industry that exported to almost 50 countries. The heart of that industry is Victoria's Sunraysia district.</p> <p>In 2013-14, Victoria exported a record $366 million of almonds, a 162 per cent jump on the previous year, as export volumes almost doubled. Almonds were easily the state's most valuable horticulture export, well ahead of grapes ($227 million).As more and more almond trees reach maturity, the records are likely to keep tumbling. The 2015 Australian crop, which will be picked early next year, is projected to be about 75,000 to 80,000 tonnes, which would be another record. Victoria produces the bulk of the crop, with more than two-thirds of all almond plantings in the Sunraysia, with the remainder in South Australia and New South Wales.Production volumes, export volumes and local sales are all rising. But importantly, another part of the equation also on the rise is price. The average price for a kilogram of exported almond kernels in July was $8.66, one of the highest monthly prices in recent years and almost double the price three years earlier. Severe drought affecting the California industry has helped push up world prices.</p> <p>Ross Skinner, the chief executive of the Almond Board of Australia, said demand for almonds had surged. "Growth in demand for almonds around the world has been nearly double-digit growth over the last decade," he said. "The major drivers are India and China, but also there's been very strong growth in Europe."India - which bought $100 million of Australian almonds - was the biggest purchaser in the 12 months to the end of February, followed by the United Arab Emirates ($43.5 million) and Germany ($29.9 million).</p> <p>The surge in production, Mr Skinner said, was "on the back of the significant plantings that occurred during the mid-2000s, and the fact that it takes eight years for almond trees to reach full production".The biggest driver of the plantings in the 2000s was the large-scale plantings done under Timbercorp's Managed Investment Scheme, he said.While Timbercorp may have come a cropper, the trees did not. Now, they are owned by Olam, the biggest almond producer in Australia, and they are producing heaps of nuts.Mr Skinner said Sunraysia's "Mediterranean-type climate" with hot summers and cold winter nights, as well as access to irrigation water, made it a very suitable place to grow almonds.</p> <p>Horticulturalist Neale Bennett was the fourth generation of his family to produce dried fruit at Merbein, near Mildura, but "broke the mould". After a dried fruit season in which the family "grew our biggest crop but probably had our worst return", Mr Bennett was keen to search for new opportunities. In 1992 the family planted its first almond orchard, which it progressively expanded.</p> <p>Now, he is both an almond grower and the chairman of the Almond Board of Australia. He foresees a bright future for the industry, "simply because of the world demand. There's a lot of demand for almonds and nuts in general," he said. "A lot of these nuts are now being incorporated into peoples' diets a lot more than what they used to be."</p> <p>The Victorian Agriculture Minister, Peter Walsh, said Sunraysia's almond orchards were thriving. The export performance of Victorian almonds in 2013-14 "demonstrates that there's an industry there that's identified a particular market and has gone out and grown for that market," he said. "It's been a real success story."</p> <p> </p>