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Chico almond grower and beekeeper offers 2009 outlook |
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Have contracts in place, maintain good relations with growers, and hope for rain: that is the advice for 2009 to beekeepers from an authority on both California almonds and honey bees. Dan Cummings, a grower and beekeeper in Chico and a former board member of the Almond Board of California (ABC), offered his analysis of this year's almond pollination season during the board's 36th Annual Almond Industry Conference in Modesto. In sketching the issues, Cummings said almond prices, which peaked at $3 a pound in 2005, are headed downward, possibly to $1.50 or less for the 2008 crop, due to the industry's rapid ascent in production to an estimated, record 1.5 billion pounds. <more> Feb. 27, 2009 Western Farm Press
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