Blue Diamond Growers cuts 38 corporate jobs

Sacramento-based Blue Diamond Growers recently eliminated 38 corporate jobs in layoffs aimed at remaining cost efficient “under heightened pressure,” the cooperative of almond farmers said.

Blue Diamond, a cooperative of more than 3,000 farmers, is one of the largest almond producers in the world. It processes the almonds it buys from the farmers at plants in Sacramento and in the Central Valley at locations in Salida and Turlock.

In the fall, Blue Diamond President and CEO Kai Bockmann said the almond cooperative faced “significant challenges” in its latest fiscal year, which ended Aug. 25 with a 21% decline in net sales from a year earlier. He said those challenges included an oversupply of almonds, inflationary pressures, depressed market prices and shifts in consumer shopping patterns.

The Sacramento Business Journal was the first news outlet on Tuesday to report on the layoffs.

“Marketplace headwinds coupled with industry challenges have made it difficult for many Blue Diamond growers to remain financially viable,” Blue Diamond wrote in a written statement sent to The Sacramento Bee. “We are implementing an aggressive growth plan which includes investing in more sales capabilities to strengthen our core business and break into new markets. The cooperative is right sizing the organization to strategically align and support this growth strategy.”

The 38 eliminated corporate jobs represent less than 3% of the company's global workforce, the cooperative's statement said, and Blue Diamond is ensuring that all exiting team members receive severance and outplacement services.

The 113-year-old cooperative of almond growers said these layoffs are difficult, but “they are necessary” to ensure Blue Diamond's success.

Cooperative statistics show net sales declined to $1.3 billion in the 2022-23 fiscal year. Blue Diamond saw $1.6 billion in net sales in the previous fiscal year. Separately, an Almond Board of California-commissioned report found that the state's almond growing acreage dropped by around 5% in 2023.

A key problem, Blue Diamond officials said, is that the 2020-21 growing season produced the surplus of almonds affecting the market today. The crop reached a record 3.1 billion pounds of almonds.