Our History
How We’ve Grown
1850
California pioneers find an ideal Mediterranean climate in the soils of Sacramento, Monterey and Los Angeles, where they plant their first almonds, giving birth to an industry.
1910
The California Almond Growers Exchange is founded, leading development of California’s almond industry from a minor domestic specialty crop to the world leader in almond production and marketing.
1914
The Exchange opens a new receiving and packaging plant, which would later become the largest nut processing plant in the world, covering 33 city blocks on 90 acres.
1915
The Exchange adopts the blue diamond — the rarest in the world — as the symbol on its label, representing high quality and distinguishing it from Spanish and Italian imports.
1931
20 million pounds of almonds are delivered by four thousand almond growers.
1931
The Exchange innovates grading, shelling and other processes to increase market share. Mechanical test grading for quality is introduced.
1949
The 6-ounce can of Blue Diamond Smokehouse® almonds is first introduced.
1980
The Exchange officially becomes known as Blue Diamond Growers.
1986
Blue Diamond launches A Can A Week ad campaign, in which real almond growers made the pitch “A can a week, that’s all we ask.”
2010
Over 1.5 billion pounds of crops delivered to keep up with record-breaking global demand.
2013
Blue Diamond doubles capacity by opening a new plant in Turlock, California, designed to create more value-added global products using state of the art technology.
2013
The Blue Diamond Almond Innovation Center opens, becoming the world’s first and only research center dedicated to almond product innovation.
Today
Working with a new generation of growers, Blue Diamond continues its legacy of bringing the benefits of almonds to the world.
