Industry Overview
The first almond trees were planted in Australia in 1836 on Kangaroo Island. They soon spread to private gardens throughout Adelaide and other South Australian towns. As Adelaide continues to expand, the number of commercial orchards in the Adelaide Plains is declining to make way for housing estates. Currently the major growing regions are Sunraysia on the Victorian and New South Wales border, the NSW Riverina and the SA Riverland. Almonds are now also being harvested in Victoria’ s Goulburn Valley and further development in this region is planned in coming years. There is also one almond orchard in Western Australia.
Over the past 20 years, the Australian almond industry has grown significantly. From 3,546 hectares in 2000, production has grown to over 66,096 hectares in 2024.
There are now more than 20 million almond trees in Australia. It is important to note that the farming inputs for these orchards such as water and the work of bees produce value in multiple ways: from the almond kernels for human nutrition and health, to the almond hull and shell for animal stockfeed, to the carbon stored by the trees and oxygen released back into our environment. The Australian almond industry contributes more than 10,000 jobs to the Australian economy with this figure increasing as the orchards reach full maturity. The almond value chain is comprised of four segments: growing, hulling and shelling, sorting and packing, and value adding. Once almonds have been packed or processed for use in further food manufacturing, the products are ready for the wholesale, food service, retail, or export markets. The largest growers are vertically integrated to encompass processing, packing, domestic and export marketing of their own almonds. The demand for Australian almonds across the globe continues to highlight emerging markets for Australia, with countries like Türkiye and Spain purchasing at record volumes.
PROPERTY SIZE BY GROWER
1-49 HA 54 %
50-99 HA 9 %
100-149 HA 5 %
150-199 HA 5 %
200-499 HA 11 %
500-999 HA 5 %
1000 HA 11 %
68 % of Australian almond orchards are 150 hectares or less
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