Gold Leaf Farming Acquires 1,850 Acres of California Almond Orchards

March 11, 2020

By Lynda Kiernan

Gold Leaf Farming has acquired 1,850 acres of almond orchards located in California’s San Joaquin Valley for an undisclosed amount.

The Mendrin Group acted as exclusive advisory to the seller, an unnamed, multi-generational family partnership with a long agricultural history in the state. 

“The market for almond and pistachio orchards in California is strong, with the number of buyers easily outnumbering quality orchards available to purchase,” stated Al & Josh Mendrin of The Mendrin Group.

This is the second significant California acreage deal to recently be facilitated by The Mendrin Group. In the early days of February, the group represented The Bianchi family, based in Soledad, California, for the long-term lease of the Bianchi Big Bench – a parcel of 846 continuous acres in Salinas Valley to Wonderful Citrus. 

Wonderful Citrus, the leading grower, packer, shipper, and distributor of citrus fruits in North America, plans to develop the land into orchards for the production of Wonderful Seedless Lemons – a new variety of premium, naturally seedless, non-GMO Project Verified branded lemons in the U.S. and Canada.

Gold Leaf Farming, the buyer involved in this latest deal, is a young agricultural company founded by Jack McCarthy, an experienced food and agriculture investor with a recent focus on specialty crops, and Brandon Rebiero, an almond grower, manager, and consultant for approximately 20,000 acres of predominantly permanent tree crops across California.

Gold Leaf owns and manages almond and pistachio properties in California and Arizona, and is aiming to continue to add acreage to a portfolio being built for the long-haul, which will incorporate modern farming practices, technology, and sustainability. 

“As younger growers, we aim to build on the success of past generations of California farmers while leveraging technology and sustainable practices wherever possible,” said Brandon Rebiero, partner, Gold Leaf Farming. “Our deep ag experience will allow us to continue to operate this farm with the highest quality standards as we expand our farming footprint.”

The global almond market is expected to see a CAGR of approximately 4.9 percent to reach a value exceeding $8 billion by 2024, according to Market Watch. 

There were roughly 1.7 million bearing acres of almond trees in California in 2019, according to Brittney Goodrich, assistant cooperative extension specialist, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC, Davis, who said that in 2020 there will be approximately 1.2 million bearing acres requiring 2.4 million bee colonies for adequate pollination.  

Bees are our critical partners, safeguarding human well-being and the success of our agricultural production systems. They are a key component to food security, with one out of every three bites of food we eat being dependent on the work they do as pollinators. They ensure biodiversity, healthy ecosystems, and human nutrition, with 75 percent of the world’s fruit and seed crops dependent, at some level, on natural pollination for continued production.

From apples to almonds to alfalfa grown for cattle feed, every year crops valued at $20 billion depend on bees, which also produce $150 million in honey on an annual basis.

However, in recent years there has been a widely tracked and steady decline in honeybee numbers due to a phenomenon that has come to be known as colony collapse disorder. Over the winter of 2006-2007, beekeepers began to experience hive losses of between 30 and 90 percent.

One of the crops most interdependent on the health of bees is almonds.

“At this very minute, there are probably 2.5 million beehives in almond orchards throughout the state,” Louie Mendoza, agricultural commissioner in Northern California’s Butte County, told Growing Produce on February 28. Mendoza went on to explain that as the bloom stretches across the state, these hives will be transported from orchard to orchard.  “Keeping track of and protecting all these bees is a massive job.”

Technology however, is stepping in to make the task of tracking hives easier. A new cloud-based system called BeeWhere allows ag commissioners to see exactly where hives are located with the goal of protecting them from being inadvertently sprayed during the growing season.

The platform also works with Cal Ag Permits, another internet portal that is notified when an operator or manager plans to spray a pesticide in the state. If Cal Ag Permits determines that bee hives are located within one mile of a planned spray, the farmer doing the spraying will be alerted and given the contact information of the beekeeper on record so the hives can be moved out of range.

“Everyone needs to do their part.” said Mendoza. “That means beekeepers, pesticide applicators, and farmers must all BeeWhere.”

 

– Lynda Kiernan is Editor with GAI Media and daily contributor to the GAI News and Agtech Intel platforms. If you would like to submit a contribution for consideration, please contact Ms. Kiernan at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.

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