{"id":509128,"date":"2026-02-28T06:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T06:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509128\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T06:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T06:14:10","slug":"australias-almond-industry-cracks-1-3-billion-mark-as-chinese-demand-rises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/509128\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s almond industry cracks $1.3 billion mark as Chinese demand rises"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia produced a record $1.3 billion worth of almonds last financial year as exports to China increased nearly 130 per cent.<\/p>\n

The amount of almonds produced by Aussie farmers actually fell 5 per cent, but the crop’s value increased by an incredible 20 per cent.<\/p>\n

Australian Almond Board chief executive Tim Jackson said growers were getting their best returns in a decade.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a perfect storm for Australian almonds,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had a low exchange rate, but also trade agreements with China and India has seen demand for almonds go through the roof, and growers have been able to extract a premium.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The value of Australian almonds is rising. (ABC Landline)<\/p>\n

Data released this week by Hort Innovation<\/a> shows almond exports to China increased from 33,373 tonnes to 76,132 tonnes in the 2024-25 financial year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

India was the second-largest customer, taking 19,803 tonnes, which was similar to the previous year.<\/p>\n

Loading…China dominates<\/p>\n

Mr Jackson said China was consuming Australian almonds “in every which way you can think”.<\/p>\n

“Value-added [almond] milk, snacking, processing, it’s such a diverse market,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And the fact we can land them there with zero tariff, compared to the 50 per cent tariff that Californian almonds [are taxed], means we’ve got more and more Chinese buyers trying to source Australian almonds.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Demand for almond milk is taking off in China. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n

He said China was easily the industry’s largest customer.<\/p>\n

“China is currently 61 per cent of total exports, which is getting into territory that is concerning,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But given we’ve come out of some of the lowest prices and returns in recent history, you can’t blame growers for pushing more almonds into China, where there’s a premium and such strong demand.”<\/p>\n

\"Dry<\/p>\n

China is buying more than 60 per cent of Australia’s total almond exports. (ABC News: Brett Worthington)<\/p>\n

Record harvest underway, sort of<\/p>\n

Australia is forecast to harvest a record almond crop this year of 167,000 tonnes.<\/p>\n

The harvest has started in some areas, but there are plenty of growers, including Jim Belehris from Cooltong in South Australia, who have been delayed by rain.<\/p>\n

“I was due to start harvesting this morning but the timing [of this rain] could not have been worse,” he told the SA Country Hour.<\/p>\n

“The almonds will dry up in the tree, so we’ll look at the weather later and go from there.<\/p>\n

“We just need a small window of dry weather and we’ll get into it.”<\/p>\n

\"Almonds<\/p>\n

Australia is on track for a record almond harvest this year. (ABC News: Brett Worthington)<\/p>\n

Mr Jackson said rain could cause a range of issues for almonds such as mould, but it felt wrong to complain about wet weather.<\/p>\n

“We’re torn between two things, because the price of water is at a high level at the moment and we need [dam] storages filled,” he said.<\/p>\n

“But the timing of the rain has got everyone shaking their heads.”<\/p>\n

Watch ABC TV’s Landline at 12:30pm on Sunday or on ABC iview<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia produced a record $1.3 billion worth of almonds last financial year as exports to China increased nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[142361,9765,64,63,99,512,11054,61833,9074,8050,83472,68955],"class_list":["post-509128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-almond","tag-almond-milk","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-china","tag-exports","tag-harvest","tag-prices","tag-record","tag-tim-jackson","tag-value"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=509128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}