Judy Hirgoyen on Pistachio Crop

Judy Hirgoyen on Pistachio Crop

Patrick Cavanaugh
Patrick Cavanaugh

A billion pound pistachio crop is on the near horizon. Judy Hirigoyen is Vice President of Global Marketing with the American Pistachio Growers based in Fresno. She's ready for the challenge in marketing the crop globally

“Our job, and mine very specifically, is to make sure that the demand is created ahead of the supply. And when you were talking about us reaching a billion pound crop, probably this coming year, some people in the industry who think that it'll be less than a decade before we hit 2 billion. We're ready for it,” she said.

Hirigoyen said there is global demand for California pistachios. And she added more people need to join the American Pistachio Growers Association.

“Because we're a voluntary trade association, and assessments are not mandated in this industry, we do a lot of grant writing here,” she said. We try really hard to demonstrate our value to our members and to the non members in the industry, because it's very clear that every pound of pistachios needs to be represented financially so that it can be marketed.”

She said APG offers support to the growers.

“Any barriers to trade that might not be tariffs, like regulatory issues, and so that we can fund all of this advertising and awareness building that we do in these countries to generate demand,” Hirigoyen noted.

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