Dan Cummings
Chairman of the Board
CHAIRMAN’SMESSAGE
A Promise for Generations
Three brothers from Kansas are helping to change perceptions about growing food. These young men
took their passion and used the tools of their generation to create the fun, engaging, and inspiring YouTube
video “California Farms.” Welcome to farming in the digital media age! As our industry continues facing
challenges on how and what we grow, we need to lean on our next generation to deliver on the promise to
reconnect consumers with their food and how it’s produced. Thank you to our District Four Director Kevin
Fondse for sharing this.
Almost eleven decades ago, the
Blue
Diamond
cooperative was born from a
group of growers who understood that by
effectively promoting and protecting their
crop better profits could be achieved. Even
though growers gave up individual control
on parts of the business, they remained
faithful that the cooperative model
Blue
Diamond
was built on would deliver. We
have succeeded in keeping the promises
our founders put forth 108 years ago. It is
the commitment of the Board to continue
delivering on our promises and ensure the
cooperative thrives for generations to come.
The promise of stability for our grower
families is one challenged during each
growing season. But, against all odds this
year, the cooperative and crop endured. An
unpredictable mother nature subjected our
orchards to rain, wind, and hail. The unusual
weather persisted with overnight freezing
conditions that kept many of us working hard
through the night to protect our crops. Our
industry also withstood an unpredictable
political scene. Governments here and abroad
presented barriers to the free trade of our
product impeding our ability to bring the
benefits of almonds to the world. I am happy
to share that through the determination of our
grower-owners and the
Blue Diamond
team,
we produced another quality crop and made
ever-increasing sales.
Our commitment to delivering stability does
not stop there. This year’s investments in our
facilities, which include the expansion of the
Salida facility to support increased almond
flour production capabilities and moves to
state-of-the-art pasteurization technology
to protect our brand reputation. As a result,
the cooperative will discontinue other less
effective pasteurization methods while
achieving better quality.
Accelerating innovations is really helping to
add value to our return each year. I want to
briefly highlight the launch of yogurt in Spain,
which the Board had an opportunity to see in
retail stores while attending the International
Dried Fruit and Nut Congress. The flavors
were developed for unique European
consumer taste preferences and are superb
in quality. We learned that launching in a
smaller global market provided a good test
market for future expansion. Strategically this
international market can help make a uniquely
different and higher quality plant-based
yogurt for U.S. consumers. I am confident we
will continue to deliver on the promise of
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A L M O N D F A C T S
