Pistachios Are Everywhere Right Now, Not Just in Dubai Chocolate

Demand for the Instagram-friendly nuts have driven up margins for farmers.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pistachios are everywhere right now, not just in Dubai Chocolate
by Elina Pang and Sunny Kim read by Katherine Vassilopolos.
The homemade rice Crispies treats in Alex George's TikTok post
were no average baked good. Swirled into the cereal along
with melted down marshmallows was a healthy dollop of pistachio cream,

(00:24):
a spread made of the nuts and lots of sugar.
The chartreuse colored confection, topped with chopped pistachios and chunks
of halva, won the attention of George's four hundred thirty
seven thousand, five hundred followers. Her video has racked up
more than fifty three thousand views since she posted it
in February. It was beautiful because pistachios have a beautiful color,

(00:47):
says George, a self taught baker in Philadelphia who shares
her creations under the handle at Lily pa Crumb's. Now
that we live in this world where everything needs to
look a certain way, I think sometimes you eat, even
make cooking decisions with your eyeballs before you even think
about the taste. Thanks in part to that powerful visual appeal.

(01:08):
Pistachios in all forms are having a moment. A year
and a half after Fixed dessert Socolattier, a chocolate shop
in the United Arab Emirates, introduced to Bai Chocolate, a
bar stuffed with gouy pistachio cream that went megaviral and
inspired countless global imitators. The nuts are all over social
media and restaurant menus, popping up not only in candy,

(01:31):
but also in pastries, espresso drinks, pastas, and more. Data
from yelp ink show a surgeon interest from diners in
the past year. Searches for the term pistachio more than
doubled from June twenty twenty four to May twenty twenty
five compared to the same period a year prior. While
pistachio latte was up one hundred twenty eight percent, pistachio

(01:55):
chocolate increased eight thousand, nine hundred forty two percent. It's
a moment us pistachio growers have been waiting for after
years of advertising and lobbying for more market access abroad.
Now the industry, based mostly in California, is hoping the
world's appetite will keep growing to meet the size of
the coming harvest. Pistachios follow a natural production cycle in

(02:19):
which boom years alternate with busts. The twenty twenty three
twenty four growing season set a record of one point
forty nine billion pounds, which coincided with the launch of
Dubai Chocolate and helped fuel the broader pistachio food trend.
The US Department of Agriculture projects the twenty twenty five
twenty six season, which starts in September, will exceed those numbers.

(02:43):
The twenty twenty four to twenty five production year, which
ends in August, is expected to yield one point one
billion pounds of pistachios. That relatively small supply, combined with
the internet's obsession, has been great for business. At ten
dollars and fifty cents, pistachio haves and pieces, a popular
format for confectioners, are currently seventeen percent more expensive than

(03:08):
they were a year ago, yielding healthier margins for farmers,
says Jim Zion, a managing partner at Meridian Growers, the
sales company for a group of West Coast nut growers
and processors. Pistachios are the it nut right now. He says,
everybody wants to be in pistachios. This fall's predicted mega

(03:28):
harvest may pressure prices, making it particularly important that demand
remains high, says David mcganna, a senior analyst at Rabobank,
a major lender to the food and agriculture industries. The
pistachio industry is investing heavily to make sure its supplies
have somewhere to go, especially as President Donald Trump's trade

(03:48):
war threatens its export market. Roughly sixty percent to seventy
percent of US pistachio production was sold overseas in recent years,
and more than a third of those shipments he had
to China in the twenty twenty three twenty four season,
According to the Administrative Committee for Pistachios, a West Coast
group that regulates nut quality in cooperation with the USDA

(04:11):
to sustain domestic demand, Wonderful Pistachios in May unveiled a
multimillion dollar marketing campaign dubbing the nuts that Don't hold
back Snack. American Pistachio Growers, a nonprofit trade association that
represents more than eight hundred pistachio farmers, spent about ten
point five million dollars in the twenty twenty four fiscal

(04:32):
year on marketing and promotion, up from nine point nine
million dollars the previous year. Meridian Growers, which also processes nuts,
doubled capacity at its factory in Fireball, California, to fifty
million pounds in twenty twenty three, and added the ability
to roast and pasteurized nuts in house. According to Zion,

(04:55):
that allows the company to sell ready to eat nuts
in the US as opposed to selling raw nuts overseas
for processing elsewhere. Due to the particularly high demand for
the creamy fillings that go into desserts, Meridian has also
invested in a California pistachio paste maker and is trying
to more than double its output of paste within the

(05:15):
next twelve months. The world's hunger for the nuts still
appears to be ravenous. Last August, Hagendas re released its
pistachio ice cream flavor, featuring larger pistachio chunks. Over the
past year, Lint and Sprinkly Group has rolled out several
products combining chocolate and pistachio, including a Dubai style bar

(05:36):
that sold out almost instantly when a batch came online
In June. This winter, pistachio lattes appeared as a seasonal
item on Starbucks menus for the second year in a row.
Sweet shops from Chicago to San Antonio to Miami Beach
offer their takes on the trend. Sean Yune, owner of
two locations of the Angelina Bakery chain in Manhattan, says

(05:58):
demand for the Dubai chocolate croissants he sells for seven
dollars and fifty cents at one of his stores has
grown steadily since he introduced them six months ago. Whenever
I buy pistachio cream, I always try to get more
than I should, because sometimes it's not there, Eune says. George,
the baking influencer says she has more pistachio recipes on

(06:19):
the way this summer, including a spumoni ice cream made
with chocolate cherries and of course pistachios. I don't know
how long it will last, to be honest with you,
she says, of the world's obsession with the photogenic nut.
But I'll be curious to watch