The Almond Board’s Four-Cent Assessment Has Been Sunset

The Almond Board’s Four-Cent Assessment Has Been Sunset

Patrick Cavanaugh
Patrick Cavanaugh

The Almond Board of California is funded by a three-cent-per-pound assessment of nut production. However, four years ago growers agreed to raise the assessment to four cents which sunset this past season.

Richard Waycott is President and CEO of the Almond Board explains why they did it.

“We did it because we saw two things happening. One, we wanted to get demand ahead of supply. We expected our production to ramp up faster than it has, but that was the big motivator for additional funding,” Waycott said.

“We also sought geographic expansion of our programs and then we wanted to build a better supply and that's that Almond Orchard of the Future that we're striving for. It has to do with the 2025 goals and so it's really better almond supply in terms of quality, food safety, and then building more demand,” noted Waycott.

Holly King is an almond grower who is the chair of the Almond Board explains the benefit of that extra penny in the assessment and the care they took at the Almond Board when it was sunset.

“We had additional revenue for three years and it allowed us to explore some new markets, determine which were the best, and then invest in them,” King said. “And so it gets at least the foundation set to move in those areas. And then when you drop the extra one cent of assessment, and you don't have the almond production didn't increase as fast as we thought it caused some reductions,” she noted.

“But we really were thoughtful in how we reduced those budgets so that we could keep the new programs and figure out where we get the best bang for the buck. So I think we did a thoughtful carving out and still supporting the new endeavors and the new programs going forward,” said King.

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