Payments to Blue Diamond almond growers top $1.1 billion

Sacramento-based Blue Diamond Growers said payments to almond growers for their 2014 crop totaled a record $1.18 billion.

That figure, based on the year ending Aug. 28, 2015, topped last year’s record of $1 billion. The cooperative’s payments to growers have nearly doubled from $660.8 million reported in 2012.

Grower-owners attending the cooperative’s 105th annual meeting Wednesday in Modesto were told that global almond sales revenue totaled $1.64 billion for the year, which exceeded the sales record of $1.5 billion set the previous year.

It was the fourth consecutive year that revenue topped $1 billion for the co-op’s fiscal year. Records were set each of those years.

This story was originally published November 20, 2015 at 10:09 AM with the headline "Payments to Blue Diamond almond growers top $1.1 billion."