Pistachios

Pistachios

Kelly Allen
Kelly Allen
California’s pistachio crop is expected to do very well in an alternate bearing year.

Farmer Jim Maxwell told the California Farm Bureau Federation demand is strong and the crop is expected to be up to the task.

“The state crop looks to be quite large, 750-800 million pounds. The quality is very good, thje marketers are doing a great job of opening new markets. People love pistachios all over the world.”

In 2008, American consumers ate about a tenth of a pound of pistachios a year. Today we are consuming about 4 times that much. That’s according to the USDA Marketing Service

California grows more than 98 percent of the pistachio crop.

While American’s appetite for pistachios continue to grow the outlook for marketing this relatively smaller pistachio crop is good. The American Pistachio Growers says that tariffs imposed on U.S. pistachios have not slowed imports from China, the industry’s largest customer. The Association’s director says shipments to China continue and at levels above last year’s.

Foreign customers of U.S. pistachio nuts don’t have many other sources as the Iranian pistachio crop was much smaller last year and is not expected to rebound. India, which has imposed tariffs on almonds and walnuts, but not pistachio nuts, is expected to become one of the largest markets for U.S. grown pistachios,

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