How Almond Growers Help the Local Economy

Posted on : June 11th, 2019

Almonds Cracking Open in July and August

Did you know that 80% of the world’s almonds are grown right here in California? California also supplies 100% of the almonds sold in the United States. In 2016 that amounted to 2.15 billion pounds of nut meat (shelled nuts) valued at $5.2 billion in worth and $21 billion in economic revenue when products made from the nuts are added in. Those are amazing statistics given that 91% of almond farms are family-owned like ours at Maisie Jane’s and 75% of those farms are 100 acres or less.

But we don’t produce so much of the world’s almonds just by using the labor of our personal families alone! The almond industry creates over 104,000 jobs statewide and, interestingly, ¾ of those jobs are not necessarily on the farm! 68,000 jobs are in processing and manufacturing products made from almonds and a high percentage are in related areas like marketing, bookkeeping and accounting, shipping, packaging, and all the things businesses like ours need to get the job done.

California almonds are exported to 90 countries worldwide. That’s amazing! The largest importers of these almonds are Spain, China, India, Germany, the rest of the European Union, Japan and Canada. This is interesting and a little strange since Spain and Germany are in the top five of almond exporting nations themselves. That’s because they can’t grow enough almonds locally to produce all the almond products they make and then export themselves. That means we also greatly support the world’s economy!

When you buy from your northern California almond grower, you’re not just buying a wonderful product that’s delicious and healthy. You’re not just supporting our personal Maisie Jane’s family farm. No, you’re supporting the whole community and all the families and individuals that depend on it. And the money we and they have to spend helps our local economy, too: supporting many other local businesses, schools, and civic and religious organizations.

Thank you for supporting your local family farms and almond-growing community!


 Maisie Jane’s California Sunshine Products, Inc. was founded on strong beliefs and passion for offering unique, flavorful, top-quality, nut products. We strongly believe in earth-friendly practices that start on our family-owned and operated orchards. We use organic farming practices and continue in the process by using all-natural ingredients with no preservatives or GMOs. We believe in honest, friendly and helpful customer relations at all levels. We take pride in every task, every day, with every person.