The Added-Value Almond Industry

Grant Alldrin is with Alldrin Brothers Farming in Stanislaus County. He talked about his evolution into value-added products for the company.

“We started doing the value added portion of the company back in my sophomore year of college, about 11 years ago,” he said.

“I created a specific roasted diced almond that is very popular and is used by a lot of almond butter companies, a lot of ice cream companies, frozen yogurt, and everyone seems to love the product. It's got a great robust aroma and flavor and everything,” explained Alldrin. “So that's been a huge seller of ours and that's how I started”

“Then all of a sudden blanched almond flour got popular. So that became a big deal too. So we're, uh, we're producing almond flour and the roasted diced products. All the flour is double-ground. And we make sure that all the products that come through our facility are really high-end quality.

And besides roasted diced almonds and flour, they do other added value products.

“We do a sliced almonds as well. We do natural almond meal or flour. And we do regular whole almonds, that are different than what you would see in the grocery store,” noted Alldrin. “We actually carry a Nonpareil Supreme size 20-22, (whole almonds kernels per ounce) which is the biggest Nonpareil out there in the industry and they're really hard to produce and really hard to find anywhere. So people really love that product as well.”