CALIFORNIA WALNUT: BACKGROUNDER

In a nutshell The State of California's mild climate and deep fertile soils provide the ideal growing conditions for the world's premium walnuts. Harvested at their peak, California walnuts are carefully sorted, cleaned, dried and prepared for shipping. The California Walnut Commission (CWC) is deeply committed to ensuring that its walnuts are consistently of the highest quality, excelling in both taste and appearance, through high growing and handling standards. Freshness is of key importance to the CWC. Significant variance in global growing standards has resulted in disparity in the quality of walnuts imported into Canada. The CWC seeks to remedy negative consumer opinion by adhering to a rigorous growing and processing program that ensures the excellence of its product. Canadians are quickly recognizing the consistently superior flavour and quality of California walnuts. Since 2000, California walnut shipments to Canada have nearly doubled totaling 15,089,360 million pounds in 2007. California walnuts can be described as: o being large and plump; tan in colour o possessing a rich, sweet nutty flavour o readily lending flavour and texture to any number of dishes, from salads to desserts and main courses. In addition to their superior flavour, California walnuts are packed with good nutrition and provide appetite satisfaction. For additional information on walnut nutrition, please refer to A Hearty Handful Fact Sheet. There are 37 varieties of walnuts grown in California, however, four varieties account for over 80 per cent of total production: Chandler, Hartley, Payne and Serr.

California Walnut Industry: A Short History The first commercial walnut plantings in California began in 1867 when Joseph Sexton, an orchardist and nurseryman in the Santa Barbara County town of Goleta, planted English walnuts. For several years, walnuts were predominantly planted in the southern areas of California. Some 70 years after Sexton's first planting, the centre of Californias walnut production moved northward to the Stockton area in one of the most dramatic horticultural moves in history. Better growing areas, improved irrigation and better pest control methods in the north resulted in increasingly larger yields. The Central Valley of California is now the state's prime walnut growing region. Its mild climate and deep fertile soils provide ideal growing conditions for the California walnut. California walnuts account for 99 per cent of the commercial U.S. supply and two-thirds of the worlds supply.

Growing California Walnuts Walnuts are commercially grown throughout the Central Valley of California and in the Coastal Valleys, from Redding in the north, to Bakersfield in the south. Current walnut acreage tops more than 200,000 acres with more than 4,000 growers contributing to the states $540 million walnut industry. After an orchard is planted, it takes approximately six to eight years until its first yield. Constant attention is given to each tree every step of the way from pruning, spraying and fertilizing to irrigation to ensure a healthy orchard. Once a walnut tree has been planted and stabilized, it will continue to bear fine quality fruit for as long as a century. In late August, boughs of California walnut trees hang heavy with walnuts. The harvest begins when the protective green hulls split, signaling that the nuts are ready to be removed from the trees. The harvesting methods used depend on the size of the orchard and the equipment and crew available to the grower. The harvest season usually continues into early November. Harvesting operations are largely automated. First, the orchard floor is rolled or dragged clean of twigs, rocks and other orchard debris. Then the nuts are removed from the tree by a mechanical shaker. After they have been shaken to the ground, walnuts are blown into a row to allow mechanical harvesters to pick them up for cleaning and hulling.

Processing: Drying After hulling and washing, the walnuts are transferred from the mechanical harvester into a hopper where they are mechanically dehydrated (air-dried) to the desirable eight-per-cent moisture level. This prevents deterioration of the nut and protects its quality during storage. Mechanical dehydration quick, thorough and scientifically controlled represents a major improvement over the sun-drying method formerly used.

Processing: In-shell Walnuts Walnuts with desirable traits, such as big beautiful shells, are selected for the in-shell market. The walnut is cleaned, dried and readied for markets around the world where holiday cracking of walnuts is an age-old tradition. In-shell walnuts are classified as "Jumbo," "Large," "Medium" or "Baby" according to USDA standards.

Processing: Shelled Walnuts Clean and dried walnuts are stored until ready to be cracked by state-of-the-art equipment to produce what are called "shelled" walnuts (shell-removed). Only top quality walnuts enter the processing channels, all of which are designed to exacting processing, sanitation and quality control standards. Walnuts for both consumer and industrial use are removed from storage as needed and sent to a shelling department where they are cracked. Cracking is done mechanically. Next, the shelled walnuts are screened, separating kernels into a series of sizes. Kernels are then air-separated to remove shell fragments. By bucket elevator and conveyor systems, kernels are then moved to electronic colour separators and laser sorters. Finally, walnuts are hand-sorted by trained inspectors for quality, and are ready for packaging in clear film bags or bulk cartons.

Quality Standards All walnuts must meet or exceed the standards set by the Walnut Marketing Board. Enforced by the Dried Fruit and Tree Nut Association of California (DFA), they ensure that California walnuts are truly the worlds finest. Consumers and foodservice companies are encouraged to look for the Product of California/USA designation on the label when purchasing walnuts to ensure the best in taste and freshness.

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For further information, please contact: Natalie Pavlenko Faye Clack Communications [t] 905-206-0577 ext. 231 [e] npavlenko@fayeclack.com