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Blue Diamond® pays its growers by the quality of almonds delivered. Our High Quality Grower Meat and Inshell Nonpareil programs allow growers to earn additional premiums above our standard program. In 1999, over 187 million pounds of grower meats earned additional quality meat or inshell premiums.
These programs reward growers whose high quality crop requires less processing. Your co-op works closely with you to ensure that all high quality almonds are identified at time of delivery and handled separately. Almonds not qualifying for the premiums, take more time to process which reduces our efficiency. This is why we want to help you deliver the best quality almonds possible -- so we can pay you more. Please refer to the Blue Diamond® Quality Adjustment Tables for details.
After each delivery, you receive test grading information and a delivery payment. Your statement explains the quality of your delivery based on a continuous flow sample. Highly trained personnel perform all testing using the most modern facilities under strictly controlled conditions to assure accuracy. Reference samples are kept for 60 days from date of test.
When a re-test of your delivery is requested, a new grade is determined by the average of the results from the re-test data and the original test. This applies to all deliveries unless an obvious material or entry error has been made in the original test.
Sample evaluation determines the percentage of foreign material, good meats, shell, inedible kernels, moisture, and other characteristics. If you're producing a quality crop, you are assured of receiving the true value of that quality, because our profit from what you deliver is your profit. There's no incentive for us to discount the value of your deliveries.
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