California Walnut Board Announces 2008 Crop Size

The California Walnut Board has announced that the 2008 California walnut crop hit a record 454,301 tons--by far the largest crop California has ever produced. This number is 21% higher than the 375,000 ton estimate issued by the California Agricultural Statistics Service last September and is 28% higher than the previous largest crop California had ever produced of 354,218 tons in 2005. The 2008 crop also exceeds last year's crop by 34%.

The largest contributor to this increase was the Chandler variety, which now makes up 41% of California's crop. This variety alone increased in production by nearly 60% over last year.