I am asked: How do the consumers in Asia use the almonds? Do they eat them pure? Use them in mixes. I’m curious. Surely they’re not a bunch of hipster, granola-crunchers like us Americans 😉

The short answer is: I don’t know! So I visit Google and read various talking point highlights that sounded like hyperbole that could apply for any location.  e.g. Chinese consumers recognize the nutritional value of almonds…

BTW, I did learn this interesting bit: When U.S. almonds were introduced to China in the 1980s there wasn’t a Chinese word for the nut. The almond’s Chinese name had long been da xing ren  for “Big American Almond” but that was found to be a misnomer. Many Chinese consumers considered da xing ren to be apricot kernels, a seed used in pharmaceuticals. Chinese apricot growers and processors complained. California almonds went through an identity crisis.

In 2012 things cleared up when China’s Standardization Administration and the Almond Board of California announced that ba dan mu (???)  or “flat peach kernels” as the new name. ba dan mu is a phonetic translation of the Farsi word [for almonds] B?D?M which goes back to the origin of the nut  tree itself.

Talk about brand identity confusion! All packaging had to be transformed. Sales were off by 12% that year.

The newly affluent middle class have been purchasing Almonds, once served only during special occasions, but now a common snack to be found in purses and backpacks of the Chinese people.  Movie star Gao Yuan Yuan is an ambassador on the California Almond Board to China. She appears in ads in China’s bus stops and billboards portraying almond consumption as the mark of a happy, healthy life.

Maybe Asian almond consumption is about the marketing and that the Chinese DO emulate our American style!