YENDA almond grower Paul Rossetto is confident the burgeoning Australian almond industry will hold up when the mega-drought in California breaks.
California, which produces 70 per cent of the world’s almonds, has been in drought for four
years now.
“When its drought breaks it will take the industry another four years to come back to full production and by then we expect world demand will have grown 40pc,” Mr Rossetto said.
“We’ll certainly see a drop off in prices but demand will be as such that we will still be quite comfortable.”
Mr Rossetto planted 40 hectares of drip-irrigated almonds five years ago.
“I used to grow grapes but the wineries weren’t interested in renewing contracts so I replaced my entire property with almond trees and entered into a supply contract with Almondco for five years.”
Mr Rossetto has 300 megalitres of water and will buy a further 50ML to 100ML to finish the crop.
In summer his trees require 120 litres of water a day.
He said buying temporary water was becoming expensive, but not prohibitive.
“It hurts the local economy when growers like me have to spend our money on water and not in town but that’s the price we have to pay.”
Harvest will take place in February.