California’s total almond acreage dropped for the third year in a row in 2024, a trend that hasn’t happened since at least 1995.

The trend is likely to continue for years to come, according to a new report from Land IQ, commissioned by the Almond Board of California.

Plantings low, orchard removals

In 2024, almond acreage declined by about 40,000 acres to just more than 1.52 million acres as of late August.

Bearing acreage increased slightly, rising from 1.38 million acres, up about 9,000 acres. That is the smallest increase for bearing acreage in more than two decades.

The amount of non-bearing acreage — orchards planted in the past three years — sank about 47,000 acres to 142,000 in 2024.

Significant orchard removals totaled nearly 67,000 acres this year — and roughly 210,000 acres of almonds have been removed since 2022.

The orchard removals and the decreasing amount of new plantings contribute to the probability of fewer acres over the next few years, said Clarice Turner, Almond Board of California president and CEO.

In addition, about 30,000 acres are classified as either stressed or abandoned. They were included in the standing acreage total because the orchards may have the ability to recover.

Strong almond shipments

Turner noted in a news release that there’s been strong almond shipments.

“In the past crop year, for the first time ever, we shipped more than 200 million pounds in 11 consecutive months, plus for the year, we shipped 300 million pounds more than we produced,” she said.

“We know global demand for California almonds continues to grow and that almonds will continue to have a very significant role in California and global agriculture and food industries for the foreseeable future,” Turner added.

Changes from April estimate

Land IQ is a Sacramento-based agricultural and environmental scientific research and consulting firm.

The updated Land IQ report has a slight change in the amount of bearing acreage from the company’s April initial estimate.

Land IQ crews in orchards identified additional bearing acres and removals also were overestimated by about 4,000 acres.

Large crop estimated

Despite lower acreage, a huge crop was predicted thanks to favorable weather conditions bringing a strong bloom and leading to high yields.

A USDA report projected the 2024 almond crop to be the third largest on record at 2.8 billion pounds. That would be 13% larger than the 2023 crop and 16% above the 10-year average.

Shelled almond export prices rose throughout the year, likely due to dwindling inventories and increases in world demand, according to the USDA.

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