He attributes the bump in production to a few factors. “There was a good crop but on top of that, it’s the acreage that’s been planted and developed over the years, it’s been expanding every year,” he says.
Delayed start
The pistachio harvest began later this year— Fiddyment began just a few weeks ago, but notes that the overall California crop began harvesting some varieties as early as late August. “It was a strange spring for us this year. It was cool and that contributed to the delay,” he says. “The Kerman variety for example is a primary variety and it didn’t come on board until mid-September. Usually it’s early September.”
But the large crop of nuts has had an effect on sizing. “This year, our sizes are smaller than normal. There’s a large quantity but they came off the tree in a smaller size,” says Dille. “The trees carried a lot of nuts but didn’t have the energy to grow the bigger size.”
Tariff concerns
From a demand perspective, domestic demand remains relatively even for pistachios. However, there are concerns over exporting the nuts. “Much like the almond industry, we export 2/3 of our crop. And because of our imposed tariffs on China, in turn we’ve had the U.S. agricultural products hit with tariffs,” says Dille. “Our tariffs on raw pistachios going into China are 45 percent. It’s been suggested that we go to other markets but China has 400 million middle class people and you don’t find that in other markets.”
Dille also notes that the other major country producing pistachios, Iran, has reportedly a poor crop this year. While that provides an opportunity to sell into shared markets but likely won’t cover the lost sales to China, he says.
Meanwhile grower pricing remains relatively stable on pistachios and similar to last year’s. “It’s been much higher in the past and I think it’s trying to find a level just above break even point,” he says. “Market Pricing started off good this year and I think it will stay there awhile. Given the size of the nuts, most of us are going to have to market the medium-sized nuts because there are plenty of those.”
