California’s total almond acreage dropped again in 2024, making three years in a row that acreage has decreased, something that has not happened since at least 1995, according to a new report from Land IQ to the Almond Board of California (ABC).

Total acreage dropped by about 40,000 acres from 1.56 million acres in the last crop year to just over 1.52 million in 2024. Bearing acres—orchards producing almonds and planted in 2021 or earlier—increased by the smallest amount in more than two decades, just 9,000 acres. The total of bearing acres during the 2024 growing season was 1.383 million acres compared with 1.374 million acres at this time last year.

But the amount of non-bearing acreage—new orchards planted in 2022, 2023, or 2024—sank about 47,000 acres from 189,000 acres in 2023 to 142,000 in 2024, according to the Land IQ 2024 Standing Acreage Final Estimate.

“Three straight years of decreased acreage and sizeable orchard removals reflect a trend toward lower overall California almond acreage,” says Clarice Turner, ABC president and CEO. “At the same time, we continue to see strong shipments—in the past crop year, for the first time ever, we shipped more than 200 million pounds in 11 consecutive months, plus for the year, we shipped 300 million pounds more than we produced. We know global demand for California almonds continues to grow and that almonds will continue to have a very significant role in California and global agriculture and food industries for the foreseeable future.”

There were significant orchard removals again in 2024 totaling almost 67,000 acres. Those add to the 83,000 acres removed in 2023 and 60,400 acres removed in 2022, according to the accompanying Land IQ 2023 Removal Update. Those removals and the decreasing amount of non-bearing acres, or new plantings, contribute to the probability of fewer acres over the next few years, Turner says.

In addition, slightly more than 30,000 acres are classified as either stressed or abandoned. They were included in the standing acreage total because the orchards “may have the ability to recover,” Land IQ says.

The estimates come from multiple lines of evidence, including agronomic and remote sensing knowledge, robust on-the-ground verification, customized image analysis, artificial intelligence, and more. Land IQ said the 2024 standing acreage estimate is 98.8% accurate.

The report also said the slight change in the amount of bearing acreage from the April initial estimate—which was labeled as exactly that, the initial accounting—was the result of Land IQ crews in the orchards identifying additional bearing acres, and because removals were overestimated in April by about 4,000 acres. 

Land IQ’s acreage estimates are commissioned by ABC to provide statistical transparency and a robust picture of California almonds to industry stakeholders around the world. In 2018, ABC first commissioned Land IQ, a Sacramento-based agricultural and environmental scientific research and consulting firm, to develop a comprehensive, living map of California almonds. The map is the result of more than a decade of research.