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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.