Relying On Nuts For Your Protein Needs During COVID-19

Jennifer Olmstead is Domestic Marketing Director and Public Relations for the California Walnut Board and Commission. She noted a definite uptick in consumers turning to nut crops for their protein source during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Yes, plant based eating continues to rise in popularity,” Olmstead said. And I think, with the whole COVID situation too, is there were points in time where it was harder to find meat and people have turned to some alternatives and retailers have seen really strong sales on the plant based eating side. We're seeing a lot of interest still in nut milks and nut butters, across the board. So consumers are still eager to explore that direction.

In more news, Jimmy Nichols is general manager of Nichols farms in the Kings County area of Hanford, the company farms, almonds, and pistachios, and with a 20% allocation from Westlands Water District, he will be facing some challenges,

“With Westlands we're going to carry over some water. Water allocations are tight, So the amount of water that we carried over from last year, isn't enough to get us through the entire season, but we'll target it during the critical nut-fill time in July and August,” Nichols said.