Despite the High Tariffs in China, Pistachios Are In High demand There

Richard Matoian is Executive Director of the American Pistachio Growers, based in Fresno. He noted China is strong export market even with the tariffs. “Despite a 55% tariff on raw product and what was a 15% now with 30% tariff on roasted, which will then go up to 40% if something has not worked out, despite all those tariffs that are in currently in place, we've had record shipments to China,” he said.

“Part of it probably has to do with the fact that they couldn't buy pistachios from another source such as Iran because they had a crop disaster this last year, but we think had we not had the tariffs, we could have sold even more product,” noted Matoian.

“We had record shipments to China despite the tariffs. So it just shows that there is strong consumer demand for our product in that part of the world,” he said.

And those tariffs increase the cost of pistachios in China, but still the consumers buy them. “They know that consumers at the retail level are willing to pay to buy the product. It is a preferred gift that's given during the Chinese New Year. So we see 50% of our shipments in the months of September, October, November, and half of December leading up to the Chinese New Year celebration, which is Saturday, January 25th,” Matoian said.