California's Almond Authority

Mel Machado, Chief Agricultural Officer at Blue Diamond Growers, has seen a lot of change in his nearly 35 years working for the cooperative. Since he started, the statewide crop has more than tripled in acreage, and has grown into California’s second biggest ag commodity.

Harvest is underway, and Machado spends virtually every day, traveling throughout the Central Valley visiting with their 3,000 growers and checking crop progress. The current forecast is for 2.7 billion pounds shelled, which would be very close to the 2025 harvest.

While harvest is all encompassing, the almond industry has made steady progress in sustainability, refining crucial areas like water use efficiency, habitat management and getting the most from crop nutrition.

Machado said this is his dream job. 

“I get to work with an amazing group of people around the valley,” he said. “The best decision I ever made was to come to Blue Diamond.”

Find out more at bluediamondgrowers.com.