nov-dec-2019

Dan Cummings Chairman of the Board CHAIRMAN’SMESSAGE Investing. Innovating. Inspiring. Today, I want you to think about what makes you proud. I am incredibly proud to be a husband and father, a farmer, and a member of the Blue Diamond family. I am proud to serve as your Chairman of the Board. But, more importantly, I am proud of all of you! The incredible attendance at this year’s annual meeting demonstrated a passion for the industry and dedication to this cooperative. Blue Diamond is celebrating 109 years of shared success and our legacy is impressive. We have every right to be proud of our accomplishments. As proud Blue Diamond growers, we have built a solid reputation for delivering the benefits of almonds to the world. And, we remain resilient when it comes to the ongoing uncertainty of the free trade of our product. I applaud the diligence of our growers for their advocacy and I am proud of our Blue Diamond team for cultivating the partnerships that support our cooperative and our industry. Providing stability and superior returns to our grower families is our number one priority. Your board is ever committed to supporting this effort and achieved goals to this end over the last year. First, we invested in our growers’ farms and the cooperative with a sharper focus on sustainability. Second, we sought ways to create further value by innovating to achieve the maximum return to our growers. Lastly, we looked for opportunities to inspire future generations enabling our industry and this cooperative to prosper. We have a strong foundation and working with these goals in mind allows us to realize our number one priority. Blue Diamond growers have always believed in sustainability. Our investments in this area address the new challenges we face about how we grow. By creating a program led by a sustainability expert, we will be able to share our successes with sustainable farming. I am proud of our growers’ involvement in Blue Diamond ’s sustainability workshops held this last year. There is an increasing demand for data and information from buyers and consumers about how Blue Diamond produces almonds. The grower sustainability program tells the positive story highlighting our practices in the field. Blue Diamond supports the industry by using the Almond Board’s California Almond Sustainability Program to capture this essential information. Our approach to investing must continue to be a strategic one. It is one that requires a balance between the growth of this cooperative and the growth of our industry. Crop yields will continue to increase and that big crop is coming. The board is confident that Blue Diamond is making thoughtful investments to ensure we are prepared to handle it. To succeed we must also put to use the developments of new technology. Our ability to think innovatively plays a central role in giving us the competitive advantage. We are expanding at two of our facilities – Salida and Turlock. And, the investments being made will allow us to achieve maximum returns for our growers in the future. At the Salida facility, we are building on the success of the Bulk 7 receiving warehouse with a 2nd generation warehouse that will store an additional 50 million pounds of almond meats. These are two spectacular storage buildings. Those of you who had a chance to participate in the morning bus tour to Salida saw first-hand progress of Bulk 8’s construction. The state-of-the- 1 2 A L M O N D F A C T S