Pistachio's News

The pistachio industry is continuing to grow, especially in California State. California grows 98.5 percent of the nation’s pistachios, with an annual farm gate value of $700 million.

As more Central Valley farmers have decided to grow drought-tolerant pistachios, the state’s total pistachio acreage has climbed to 210,000. Of that total, 125,000 acres are bearing crops, and many of the non-bearing trees are set to produce a crop any season now. As more trees come into production, the greater volume allows pistachio marketers to expand demand for the nuts.

Andy Anzaldo, Paramount Farms director, says Paramount markets and processes 60 percent of California’s crop. This year, it has contracted with more than 500 pistachio growers and announced a price of $2.50 per pound. Paramount, which markets the Wonderful Pistachio brand, has focused on export growth and marketing of the nut’s health benefits. Paramount plans to continue its “Get Crackin’” promotional campaign this fall, which included the first nationally televised commercial for pistachios.

As pistachio marketers work to expand markets, he says, they will increasingly look for buyers around the world. “Most of that growth will come from the export market, predominantly China,” Mr. Anzaldo says. “China is now the third-largest export market for California. That market has a lot of opportunity, along with India.”

Crop forecasters predict that California farmers will harvest 350 million pounds of pistachios this year. Six years ago, about 35 percent of the California pistachio crop was exported and today that has jumped to 65 percent. Mr. Matoian attributes the increase to foreign buyers recognizing the health benefits of pistachios, rising incomes in countries such as China and India, and the value of the U.S. dollar.

A U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast for 2009-2010 estimates U.S. pistachio exports will increase 10 percent, due to continued strong shipments to Hong Kong and China. In a five-year period, sales of pistachios to China have gone from about $5 million to a little over $70 million.

Mr. Zion, a pistachio grower, says 70 percent of what he sells goes to the export market, with the European Union being the primary destination, followed by China, Japan and Malaysia.

Most pistachios are sold as an in-shell snack nut and processors say they see an untapped market for pistachios used as ingredients.
“As pistachio volume gets to the point that we can be steady suppliers on the ingredient side, more and more snack companies are looking at using pistachio meats as ingredients in trail mixes, cookies, candy or other baked goods,”

A U.S. ban on Iranian pistachios went into effect in July, leaving California growers with an open domestic market. Pistachio growers have seen a 29 percent increase in domestic sales during the fiscal year, compared with a 9 percent increase for exports.
In addition to Paramount’s “Get Crackin’” campaign, the Western Pistachio Association created “The Green Nut” campaign to market U.S. pistachios.

The modern pistachio nut P. vera was first cultivated in Western Asia, where it has long been an important crop in cooler parts of Iran. It appears in Dioscurides as pistakia πιστάκια, recognizable as P. vera by its comparison to pine nuts. Its cultivation spread into the Mediterranean world by way of Syria: Pliny in his Natural History asserts that pistacia, “well known among us”, was one of the trees unique to Syria, and in another place, that the nut was introduced into Italy by the Roman consul in Syria, Lucius Vitellius the Elder (consul in Syria in 35CE) and into Hispania at the same time by Flaccus Pompeius. The early 6th-century manuscript De observatione ciborum (On the observance of foods) by Anthimus implies that pistacia remained well known in Europe in Late Antiquity.

More recently, pistachio has been cultivated commercially in the English speaking world, in Australia, New Mexico, and in California where it was introduced in 1854 as a garden tree. David Fairchild of the United States Department of Agriculture introduced hardier cultivars collected in China to California in 1904 and 1905, but it was not promoted as a commercial crop until 1929. Walter T. Swingle’s pistachios from Syria had already fruited well at Niles by 1917.

The pistachio (Pistacia vera L., Anacardiaceae) is a small tree native to some regions of Syria, Iran, Turkey, Greece, Turkmenistan, Pakistan, and possibly Afghanistan (especially in the provinces of Samangan and Badghis), that produces an important culinary nut. Pistacia vera often is confused with other species in the genus Pistacia that are also known as pistachio. These species can be distinguished from P. vera by their geographic distributions (in the wild) and their nuts. Their nuts are much smaller, have a strong flavor of turpentine, and have a shell that is not hard. The word pistachio is a loanword from Persian word پسته Peste via Latin.