Some Economics in the Pistachio Industry

Jim Zion is Managing Partner and sales for Meridian growers, big pistachio operation, and processor. He noted that the US remains the biggest producer followed by Iran, Turkey and Australia. “The major production areas are California, Arizona, and New Mexico with some minor production in Nevada, Texas, and Utah. A big growth is happening in Arizona. New Mexico has the potential, but unfortunately it has some issues such as spring frost that would probably prevent them from increasing much,” said Zion.

“The total crop of United States in 2020 was just slightly above 1 billion. So, we finally did break that 1-billion-pound crop. It actually took a shorter to get to a billion pounds than it did the big brother almonds, but it's going to keep producing and keep increasing annually,” noted Zion. “Despite trade issues, China and Hong Kong does remain our leading destination followed by the domestic market and then Europe, where the health messaging and the movement to plant-based diets has continued to push consumer demand,” he said.

Zion said pistachio is still remain a viable crop. Even during these uncertain times.

“We had a large adjustment done this year and we are now at 370,000 bearing acres with anywhere from 10 to 15 to up to 20,000 acres coming in annually in production. So as you can tell, the growth of production and pistachios is going to be quite rapid here in the next few years,” he said.