Almonds Are Cracking New Product Lines : Harvest Found in Cereal, Ice Cream, Cosmetics

A new brand of ice cream bearing an old name--Blue Diamond--is appearing in Los Angeles supermarkets, and all five flavors feature almonds.

That’s not surprising because Blue Diamond is a brand name used for years by the California Almond Growers Exchange, the world’s largest almond marketer. And the ice cream, which is being made by Carnation under a licensing agreement, is only the latest of scads of new products that the state’s almond growers are counting on to absorb a near-record crop now ripening.

The new products reflect the exchange’s stepped up efforts in recent years to boost demand for almonds by developing new markets for a crop whose production generally has boomed over the last 15 to 20 years, sometimes to the detriment of growers. For many, survival hangs on consumer acceptance of the new products since few growers have turned a profit in recent years.

The big harvests and, until recently, a strong dollar that diminished export sales (which normally account for 60% of all sales) resulted in vast surpluses over the years. That, in turn, caused prices to plummet.

So the cooperative--whose 5,300 grower members produce more than half the crop in California, the only state that produces almonds--sold at bargain prices to interest food companies in using almonds in more of their products. The Sacramento-based group also invested heavily in its own development program, which has turned out products ranging from almond-flavored snacks to almond butter.

Partly as a result of those efforts, almonds are turning up in such hitherto unlikely places as oils, pastes, cosmetics, spreads, cereals and frozen dinners.

The promotional effort seems to be taking hold in the public’s imagination. For example, in Pillsbury’s annual “bake-off,” contestants are submitting an increasing number of recipes containing almonds and almond paste, said Larry Haeg, a spokesman for the Minneapolis-based food-products company.

Cereal makers, in particular, have been using almonds as they seek to distinguish their products by adding ingredients such as nuts, fruits and sweets, said Craig Shulstad of General Foods.

“After all,” Shulstad said, “there are only four basic cereal grains and some 200 brands of cereals, so we’re looking for new ways to differentiate ours.”

New entries from General Mills include Raisin Nut Bran and Rocky Road. Ralston Purina brought out Almond Delight, Post introduced the almond-laced Horizon and Fruit & Fibre brands, and Kellogg added almonds to its Just Right and Nutri-Grain cereals.

For its part, the cooperative is bringing out snack almonds with a honey-roast flavor. The cooperative, which came out with its Blue Diamond Smokehouse Almonds more than 20 years ago, will introduce the honey-roast almonds on the West Coast before going national early next year, said Susan Valdes, communications manager.

She said Americans ate $1.2 billion in snack nuts last year--up 60% in a decade, with almonds taking the biggest share of the market.

California’s 1987 almond crop is expected to be 560 million pounds, the most since 1984, when growers’ sales totaled $443.9 million. It follows a disastrous 1986, when winter storms cut the anticipated harvest in half.

The small crop had the welcome effect, however, of doubling growers’ prices, which scraped along at rock-bottom levels for four years. Moreover, the budding new demand not only quickly cleaned out the harvest but soaked up past surpluses. As a result, the almond “pipeline” today is virtually dry, which should help keep prices from falling very far amid this year’s big harvest.

Last year’s uncharacteristically poor harvest translated into a tight marketing budget for the growers exchange. Nonetheless, the cooperative went ahead with a planned television ad campaign that showed Hansen and other farmers hip deep in almonds and pleading with consumers to eat “a can a week” to bail them out.

The exchange postponed a second commercial, featuring almond grower Kathy Copeland and a bear promoting the new honey-roast almonds, for lack of cash--not to mention nuts to honey-roast.

With the upbeat projection for this year, last year’s $4-million advertising budget is being tripled.

“This is our year to shine,” Copeland said.

She, at least, will have a chance to shine: Her almond commercial has been released in West Coast markets and is supposed to air nationally next year.