European Union Aims to Curtail Imports of California Almonds

By Jock O’Connell

Almonds are California’s leading agricultural export. Last year, 551,593 metric tons of containerized exports left the Port of Oakland, while another 151,409 metric tons sailed from the Ports of LA and Long Beach. According to the Almond Board of California, about one-fourth of those overseas shipments went to customers in Western Europe.

Lately, though, the European Union has been pushing a Sustainable EU Almond campaign to promote a local alternative to imports of California almonds. The program, co-financed by the EU and groups like the Spanish Almond Board and the Portuguese Centro Nacional de Competências dos Frutos Secos, is aimed at asserting the Iberian origin of almonds and highlighting their quality and sustainability. The promotional campaign, targeting Spanish and Portuguese consumers as well as consumers in other European countries, such as France and Germany, stresses that most of the almond trees in the Iberian Peninsula are grown in rain-fed conditions and are therefore more environmentally sustainable than almonds grown in regions reliant on controversial supplies of irrigation water.

The Iberian Peninsula is already a major exporter of almonds, and Spain has consolidated its position as the world's second-biggest exporter of almonds, second only to California, with no less than 9% of the global total. Spain exported 130.8 million kilos of almond products last year, mostly (87%) to other European markets. In 2023, France imported 30.9 million kilos of Spanish almonds, with a special emphasis on almond flour: up to 6.4 million kilos. This amounts to 35% of all Spanish almond flour exports. Germany imported 26.1 million kilos in total.