The Pistachio Market Update… With the general buzz around the annual harvest finally dying down, there are quite a few things to address about the pistachio industry.
For starters, this has definitely been a very difficult year for Californian growers. Drought conditions have complicated the situation. And while most industries such as the almond and walnut industries in California are paying the price of the drought and damage to crops, pistachios somehow managed to persevere.
Growers have been able to not only protect but also care for and grow their trees properly so that the crop had time to mature and accumulate to something that could be sold domestically and internationally.
HARVEST UPDATES FOR 2021
According to the California Farm Bureau, the expectations for pistachio crops for 2021 were either “at” or “exceeding” 1 billion pounds, which would be slightly under the 2020 record of 1.05 billion pounds. Unlike other nuts and dried fruits, pistachios have always had an alternative year.
This means that if last year’s crops were “on”-meaning they were good and ample in supply- this year was meant to be “off.” So, the prediction for the total supply of pistachios was expected to be low either way.
What’s more, due to their drought tolerance, more farmers in California are turning to them. In 2020, there were 485,000 bearing and non-bearing acres of pistachios, and by 2024, the pistachio crop is expected to reach half a million bearing acres, with the yield increasing to 1.4 billion pounds.