LOST HILLS, California. – At a vast facility in the heart of California’s farmland, millions of shells flow down a metal chute and onto a conveyor belt; Here it is examined, roasted, packaged and shipped to markets around the world.

Pistachios are growing rapidly in California, where farmers are dedicating more land to a crop that appears to be more drought-tolerant and more drought-tolerant. dramatic fluctuations in precipitation. The crop generated nearly $3 billion in California last year, and over the past decade the U.S. has surpassed Iran to become the world’s top exporter of hazelnuts.

“There’s been a boom in plantings over the last 10 or 15 years, and these trees are coming into play,” said Zachary Fraser, president and chief executive of American Pistachio Growers, which represents more than 800 farmers in the southwestern United States. “We’re starting to see the fruits of people’s vision 40 years ago.”

California grows more than one-third of the nation’s vegetables and three-quarters of its fruits and nuts, according to state agricultural statistics. Data shows pistachios have surged over the past decade to become the state’s sixth-largest agricultural commodity by value, ahead of long-term crops such as strawberries and tomatoes.

The bulk of the crop goes to China, where it is a popular treat during Lunar New Year. But Americans are also eating more of pistachios, a snack food that was rarely found in grocery stores a generation ago but is almost ubiquitous today, industry experts said. They are sold with or without their shells, and their flavors range from salt and pepper to roasted honey.

Wonderful Co., a $6 billion agricultural company known for brands like Halo tangerine and FIJI Water, is the biggest name in pistachios. Rob Yraceburu, president of Wonderful Orchards, said the company had grown pistachios since the 1980s but increased production in 2015 after developing a rootstock that yielded up to 40% more nuts with the same soil and water.

Wonderful now grows between 15% and 20% of the U.S. peanut crop, he said. Pistachio orchards stretch across vast expanses of dust-filled farmland dotted with pomegranates and dairy trees in northwest Los Angeles. The trees are harvested each fall and the nuts are transported to a massive processing plant to be prepared for sale.

“There is an increasing demand for pistachios,” Yraceburu said. “The world wants more.”

Pistachio farmers learn from almond growing struggles

Industry experts say pistachios are better poised to weather California’s drought spells than almonds, an even larger nut crop that generated nearly $4 billion in revenue in the state last year.

Unlike almonds and other sensitive crops, pistachio orchards can be sustained with very little water during droughts. The trees rely on wind rather than bees for pollination and can produce nuts for decades longer, Yraceburu said.

Many California farmers who grow both nuts are applying the lessons they learned from almonds to the peanut boom. Production of almonds, which are much larger than pistachios, has also increased in California, but prices have fallen due to a post-pandemic supply glut as farmers deal with drought and rising input costs, leading some to fail to replant aging orchards when the time comes. outside.

Pistachio growers say they hope to avoid a similar ending and are trying to keep demand for the nuts ahead of supply. For example, American Pistachio Growers recently signed an endorsement deal with India’s top cricketer, hoping to help promote pistachios in India, Fraser said.

Pistachios’ rise is part of a shift by California farmers away from crops like cotton toward perennial crops that yield higher returns, according to a 2023 report from the Public Policy Institute of California.

Brad Franklin, a research associate at the institute’s Water Policy Center, said perennial crops that are not replanted annually cannot be replaced in dry years, which can be challenging during intense drought.

But pistachios have benefits that other perennial crops do not have. They can survive longer without water and grow in salty soil. That could make them attractive to California farmers, who face limits on how much groundwater they can pump under a state law aimed at protecting the critical resource, he said.

“I think the most important thing is the market and where the market is,” Franklin said when farmers decide what to plant. “And the water is just below that.”

Farmers face water shortage, but peanut planting areas have increased

Farmers in California are bracing for the impact of a 2014 state law aimed at ensuring more sustainable use of groundwater after years of over-pumping into depleted watersheds and eroding water quality in some rural areas. About one-fifth of California’s peanut crop is grown in areas that rely solely on groundwater for irrigation, Yraceburu said, adding that he expects some of these orchards to eventually go out of production.

However, in the next few years, pistachio planting areas in the state are expected to continue to grow as the trees planted in recent years come into production. That’s in contrast to almond and walnut acreage, which has stagnated or declined as orchards are ripped out, said David Magaña, senior analyst at Rabobank in Fresno, California.

He said pistachios require about 3 acres (3,700 cubic meters) of water per acre (0.4 hectare), while almonds require about 4 acres (4,934 cubic meters) of water, and while they produce more per acre than almonds, they fetch a higher price.

“You see that the overall value that the pistachio industry provides to California agriculture is approaching that of almonds, which are much less acreage,” Magaña said. “I have not seen pistachio gardens being destroyed.”