This year’s pistachio crop is estimated at 1.1 billion pounds. As world pistachio supply continues to climb, the U.S. is the largest contributor to this, producing over half the global supply. Jim Zion with Meridian Growers said in late March that this year’s U.S. crop of over one billion pounds is largely sold out because of growing demand for the high-quality crop and that most processors are probably at 90% sold right now.
The U.S. pistachio industry struggles with predicting what the upcoming harvest yield will be; early estimates can vary widely. Last year’s off-year crop was initially estimated at 1.1 billion pounds, but Zion added, “then we dropped it to 800 million pounds, then back up to 1.2 (billion pounds) and 1.3 (billion pounds). We ended up right at 1.1 billion pounds.”
