RIPON, Calif. — If someone drives up and down Northern California's major highways they may notice the almond bloom is officially underway.
"It's probably one of the great wonders of the world, actually," said Richard Waycott, President and CEO of the Almond Board of California.
The bloom marks the most wonderful time of the year for almond growers.
"The almond season starts here with this bloom," said David Phippen, Partner at Travaille and Phippen.
Travaille and Phippen is an almond growing, packing and shipping company based out of Ripon.
The grove is complete with buzzing bees, to turn these blossoms into California's top cash crop — only second to dairy products.
But, recent supply chain issues have made last year’s harvest somewhat bittersweet.
The Almond Board of California said just 30% of almonds grown in California are staying here in the United States while 70% are being exported out to more than 100 countries across the globe.
Phippen said the bees may have been a bit too successful, as the company is dealing with a backlog bigger than ever before.
"Our number one challenge and the number one thing that keeps us awake at night is, those buildings behind us are bulging with almonds," Phippen said.
With 90% of his products exported internationally, the company has run into a bit of a stalemate when it comes to shipping delays.
"We have willing buyers all over the globe to take those almonds, but we're having a tough time getting them loaded on a ship in the Port of Oakland and it's a problem that we've never experienced," Phippen said.
According to the Almond Board of California, these issues are likely familiar to people.
"Obviously, on the export side, we've had the port issues, the congestion with exporting containers, probably most people have heard about," Waycott said.
For Phippen, this creates a problem they never had room for.
"Last year, we couldn't get everything out of the building before the new crop came in so what did we do?" Phippen said. "We had to build another building to help hold some of that!"
And with stacks upon stacks of boarded-up almonds all over their property, he's already considering putting up another building before harvest this summer.
"What's going through my mind is, can I solve this problem? Can I get it shipped?" Phippen said. "And it's completely uncontrollable for me — I can't make that happen so then the other alternative for me is to build more storage."
As he's not anticipating this issue going away anytime soon.
"I think we'll be living it for more than a year going forward, so it kind of shows you about the life of the grower, how much he puts at risk, how much skin in the game he has," Phippen said.
As for the almond bloom, it usually lasts for about a month, meaning people still have a couple more weeks to see them and maybe even snap a few photos.
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