Blue Diamond Growers’ Almonds Processing Plant, California

Blue Diamond Growers (Blue Diamond), a cooperative, opened the first phase of its new almond processing plant at Turlock, California, in June 2013. The Turlock facility is currently the world’s most modern almond processing plant, the cooperative claims.

The facility is located at the centre of Washington and Fulkerth Roads, on an 88-acre (35.6ha) site. It is Blue Diamond Growers’ third facility in the US, and represents the largest investment ever made by the company. The plant produces snack almonds in various flavours, nut-based crackers, Almond Breeze milk substitute, almond milk, and packaged almonds for cooking and baking.

The almond processing plant is being constructed in three phases. Construction on the first phase was started in April 2012 and completed in June 2013. The plant is expected to be fully operational by 2015. It will provide approximately 300 direct and indirect jobs to locals. The Stanislaus Economic Development & Workforce Alliance will provide a production team with high technical proficiency in food processing, for the facility.

Blue Diamond Growers has two almond processing facilities at Sacramento and Salida, in the US. It employs about 1,000 people in Sacramento and 400 in Salida.

Purpose of the new almond processing plant

The cooperative aims to produce two billion pounds of almonds valued at $6bn in 2013. It planned to increase its manufacturing capacity in order to reach the expected production yield. The Sacramento and Salida sites don’t have enough land to accommodate additional production lines.

Blue Diamond, therefore, purchased land in 2011 at Turlock, for the new plant. Preliminary construction work on the project began in January 2012.

Benefits of the Turlock site for almond processing

Blue Diamond initially inspected 39 sites for locating the new plant. Turlock was finally selected because the region has better amenities to provide frequent almond market growth. The construction of a new Regional Industrial Park at Turlock is underway and will increase the market for the plant.

The Turlock City Council supported the project by providing resources, early work permits and other infrastructure services.

Turlock plant construction

The multi-million dollar plant is being constructed as part of a 15-year expansion plan. The plan also includes upgrade works at the Sacramento and Salida facilities.

The first phase of the Turlock facility included construction of a 200,00ft² almond processing facility. The further two phases will expand the facility with an additional 300,000ft². The construction plan for phases 2 and 3 is expected to be approved by the Blue Diamond Growers board of directors by September 2013.

The plant currently sources almonds from the local people. The almond products are packaged into 25lb to 50lb boxes, or into 2,000 totes for exporting worldwide.

The plant will also provide oil roasting, dry roasting, coating, and packaging of whole almonds, when fully completed.

Almond processing at the Blue Diamond facility

The dry almonds are picked up and sorted electronically with the help of a laser light system. The almonds are further separated, graded (according to size) and stored (to maintain quality) according to customer requirements.

The plant has three almond processing lines. Line 1 processes raw in-the-skin almonds. Line 2 and Line 3 will process blanched almonds.

The initial processing of the almonds will be done at the Salida and Sacramento plants. The Turlock plant will slice, dice, grind and blanch almonds, and then export the products.

Equipment installed at the Turlock plant

The facility is installed with a variety of machines to reduce labour. The equipment includes conveyance systems, blander, slicers, dicers, pasteurisers, plasticisers, electronic sorting machines, metal detectors, scales, case erectors, bag inserters, palletiser, stretch wrapper, pallet jacks, forklifts, and so on. Blue Diamond invested $31.78m in the equipment for the plant.

Marketing commentary

Blue Diamond Growers, headquartered in Sacramento, California, was founded in 1910 and was formerly known as the California Almond Growers Exchange. It is one of world’s largest almond processors and marketers.

The state of California produces about 80% of the world’s almonds. The cooperative exports almonds to 95 countries across the globe and supplies to the 50 US states.

The company opened a new 6,500ft² Almond Innovation Centre (AIC) at the Sacramento plant in March 2013. The AIC is part of a 15-year expansion plan. It is the world’s first centre to process or design almond products.