Almond

The headline DASI is little changed from prior publication as generally favourable conditions tip into heat stress in some areas.

An unusually wet start to the bloom period gave way to highly favourable conditions that reversed February’s decline, leading DASI to its second-highest level in 10 years by the conclusion of bloom.

The statewide index continued its strong recovery into the conclusion of the bloom period, led by strong gains in the Sacramento Valley and the northern part of the San Joaquin Valley.

The statewide index recovered substantially over the past week as average temperatures increased across the Central Valley and the abnormal rain events that had weighed on bloom conditions and the index receded.

The statewide index was little changed from prior week at 73.6, as a substantially improved index for the Sacramento Valley offset some of the decline from worsening conditions in the Southern San Joaquin Valley.

California's two most important tree nut sectors are diverging at historic scale. This report tracks every acre planted and removed across 40 years by district, basin, and GSA to expose where capital is flowing, where it's retreating, and what it means for supply through the next decade.

In previous pieces in this series, we documented the scale of California's almond removal wave , which has seen ~450,000 acres (~182k ha) removed between 2014 and 2024, and the shift in planting patterns.

One of the assumptions that runs through most discussions of water risk in Californian permanent crop plantings is that orchards inside irrigation districts - with access to surface water deliveries, in addition to groundwater resources - are better protected than those in white…

The planting data indicates where new trees are going in. The removals data tells us where existing orchards are coming out. Taken together, they paint a far more complete picture of the trajectory of California's almond supply than either dataset alone.

Today's index is 75.8, down 24.5% from 7 days ago. This was driven by extreme precipitation events considerably above long-term averages with 30.1 mm of precipitation across the production footprint. The average temperature was 12.1 C.

Almonds and pistachios are grown in many of the same regions of California's Central Valley, face the same water constraints, and overlap in their grower base. But their planting trajectories since 2016 have diverged dramatically.

California's almond and pistachio sectors are planting fewer acres than at any point in the modern era. Demeter has cross-referenced a variety of datasets, including the Department of Water Resources' Land Use Mapping, to track every acre of almonds and pistachios planted and rem…

With sufficient winter chill accumulated across California's almond footprint and bloom insufficiently far advanced to move the index, DASI remains unchanged at 100.6.

Movement in the DASI was muted as the remaining areas of California's almond growing footprint reached the sufficient threshold for winter chill accumulation for all almond varieties.

A statewide heavy rain event caused the Sacramento Valley index to rise substantially in mid-October