The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service said its latest almond forecast is a 2.8 billion meat pounds, which is 13% higher than last year’s crop of 2.47 billion meat pounds but down 7% from its May forecast.
The USDA said the forecast is based on reporting from 1.38 million bearing acres.
The forecast for nonpareil, which is 39% of the state’s total almond production, is 1.1 billion meat pounds; that is 17% higher than last year’s 941 million meat pounds.
USDA said these figures are due to favorable weather conditions during bloom, which began the second week in February and finished by the middle of March. USDA also reports bee hours to be higher than last year.