California Farmers Enjoy The Pistachio Tree, Much Of Which Goes To China

LOST HILLS, Calif. (AP) — At a sprawling factory in the heart of California's farmland, millions of shells flow through a metal chute to a conveyor belt where they are inspected, roasted, packaged and shipped to groceries around the world.

Pistachios are growing rapidly in California, where farmers have devoted more land to a crop considered hardier and more drought-tolerant in a state prone to dramatic swings in precipitation. The crop yielded nearly $3 billion in California last year, and in the past decade the United States has surpassed Iran to become the world's largest exporter of the nut.

“There's been an explosion of plantings over the last 10 to 15 years, and those trees are coming online,” said Zachary Fraser, president and CEO of American Pistachio Growers, which represents more than 800 farmers in the southwestern U.S. I am beginning to see the fruits of the vision of people from forty years ago.”

California grows more than a third of the nation's vegetables and three-quarters of its fruits and nuts, according to agricultural statistics. Pistachios have soared in the past decade, becoming the state's sixth-largest agricultural commodity by value, ahead of heirloom crops like strawberries and tomatoes, the data show.

Much of the harvest goes to China, where it is a popular treat during the Lunar New Year. But industry experts say Americans are also eating more pistachios, which were rarely found in grocery stores a generation ago and are now a snack found almost everywhere. They are sold with or without shells and the flavors range from salt and pepper to roasted honey.

The Wonderful Co., a $6 billion agricultural company known for brands like Halo mandarins and FIJI Water, is the biggest name in pistachios. The company has been growing pistachios since the 1980s, but expanded in 2015 after developing a rootstock that produces as much as 40% more nuts with the same soil and water, says Rob Yraceburu, president of Wonderful Orchards.

Now Wonderful grows between 15% and 20% of the U.S. pistachio crop, he said. The pistachio orchards stretch across vast tracts of dust-filled farmland northwest of Los Angeles, also lined with pomegranates and dairies. Every fall the trees are shaken and the nuts are transported to a huge processing facility to be prepared for sale.

“There is an ever-growing demand for pistachios,” says Yraceburu. “The world wants more.”

Pistachio farmers learn from the struggle surrounding almond cultivation

Pistachios are poised to weather California's dry spells better than the even bigger nut crop, almonds, which generated nearly $4 billion in the state last year, industry experts say.

Pistachio orchards can be maintained during drought with minimal water, unlike almonds and other more sensitive crops. The trees also rely on wind instead of bees for pollination and can produce nuts for decades longer, Yraceburu said.

Many California farmers who grow both nuts are applying the lessons learned from almonds to the pistachio tree. Production of almonds, which far exceeds that of pistachios, also rose in California, but prices fell due to a glut of supply after the pandemic as farmers battled drought and rising input costs, leaving some without aging orchards replanted when it came time to use them. out.

Pistachio growers hope to avoid a similar fate and strive to keep demand for the nut above supply. For example, American Pistachio Growers recently signed an endorsement deal with a top cricketer in India, hoping to help promote pistachios there, Fraser said.

The rise of pistachios is part of California farmers' shift to perennial crops that produce higher returns than products like cotton, according to a 2023 report from the Public Policy Institute of California.

Perennial crops, which are not replanted annually, cannot simply be rotated during dry years, which can be a challenge during major droughts, said Brad Franklin, a researcher at the institute's Water Policy Center.

But pistachios have benefits that other perennial crops don't. They can survive longer without water and grow in saline soils. That could make them attractive to California farmers who face restrictions on the amount of groundwater they can pump under a state law aimed at conserving the crucial resource, he said.

When farmers decide what to plant, “I think the most important thing is the market and where the market is,” Franklin said. “And there's water under there.”

Farmers face water problems, but pistachio acreage has grown

Farmers across California are bracing for the impact of a 2014 state law aimed at ensuring more sustainable use of groundwater, after years of overpumping depleted basins and eroding water quality in some rural areas. About a fifth of California's pistachio crop is grown in areas that rely solely on groundwater for irrigation, Yraceburu said, adding that he expects some of these orchards will eventually go out of production.

But in the coming years, pistachio acreage in the state is expected to continue to grow as trees planted in recent years come into production. That contrasts with almond and walnut acreage, which are stabilizing or declining as orchards are withdrawn, said David Magaña, a senior analyst at Rabobank in Fresno, California.

Pistachios require about 3,700 cubic meters of water per acre (0.4 hectares), compared to almost 4,934 cubic meters for almonds, and produce more per hectare than almonds while fetching a higher price, he said.

“You see that the value that the pistachio industry brings to California agriculture approaches that of almonds with a much smaller acreage,” Magaña said. “I haven't seen pistachio orchards being cleared yet.”

California farmers enjoy the pistachio tree, much of which goes to China