Australia’s pistachio harvest this year has been the highest on record and, with production set to triple over the next eight years, the industry hopes to tap into new markets overseas.
Most of the nation’s pistachio crop is grown along the Murray River in southern New South Wales, north-western Victoria, and South Australia.
Many of the nuts are then processed at hulling facilities, including a new multi-million-dollar processing plant at Robinvale, in Victoria’s north-west.
Pistachios have been associated with Christmas as they are harvested in September in the Northern Hemisphere.
However, in Australia they are harvested from late February into early March.
Pistachios on a tree ready to be harvested. (ABC News: Emma Brown)
Roughly 10 years ago the industry had only 700 hectares of trees planted, but that has grown to 3,000 hectares.
The Australian Pistachio Growers Association research committee chairman, Chris Joyce, said there was every indication demand would continue to rise.
“The crop we produced this year was 4,500 tonnes — exceeding the previous Australian record by 1,000 tonnes,” Mr Joyce said.
“It’ll double in the next two or three years, and double again in the next four years after that.”
Chris Joyce (left) and David Crawford (right) open the Robinvale pistachio hulling plant. (Supplied: Nut Producers Australia)
“Currently we’re just able to supply the total Australian domestic market, but within a couple of years we’re certainly going to have surplus supply,” he said.
“This year we’ve started to open up export options, but we’re also interested in increasing domestic consumption.”
Long-living trees
Mr Joyce said the historic value of pistachios had led to other growers turning to the industry to transition away from crops that were struggling.
“Looking at other crops in Australia, which could be described as difficult, for example wine grapes, there has been a movement away from these,” he said.
“The pistachio is well established now we’ve figured out how to grow them in Australia.
“Seven years ago we processed the crop of 17 different growers, this year it was 50, and there are a lot of new growers in there as well.”
When compared with the largest nut crop Australia produces, almonds, Mr Joyce said pistachio trees lived longer, and the nut offered higher prices.
“A pistachio orchard you will never replace, my trees are 40 years old and they’ll be going in another 40 years’ time, whereas with an almond orchard you’ll be looking at starting again after 25 years,” he said.
“The almond industry prices for the past three years have been seriously depressed, and pistachio prices have been significantly higher.”
Australia is still some way behind the US, where there are 10,000 hectares of pistachios planted. (ABC Rural: Clint Jasper)
But, Mr Joyce said there had been expansions in pistachio plantations overseas as well.
“The relative attractiveness of pistachios has meant there have been massive expansions in California and Spain,” he said.
“For example, California has been planting 10,000 hectares per annum for the past decade.
“That has to have an impact on world pistachio prices, and we’ve already seen a decline of about 30 per cent from where they were about five years ago.”
Room to grow
Semi-retired Robinvale grower David Crawford has an active role within the industry as the Australian Pioneer Pistachio Company (APPC) chairman.
He said the APPC was looking to China and India for growth.
“India is a fascinating market; there’s a lot of vegetarian demand, they are very conscious of health — nuts fit right into their view of good healthy food.”
Brendan Sidhu believes new self-fertile trees could make the industry more sustainable long term. (ABC News: Samantha Dawes)
Almond grower and Australian Nut Industry Council chairman Brendan Sidhu said it was an exciting time.
He has planted 100 hectares of pistachios on his own property.
“Pistachios are similar to almonds in that there are only certain areas in which you can grow them, and the Murray-Darling Basin is an ideal climate for them,” he said.
“I think there’s huge scope for the pistachio industry to grow.
“The pistachio industry is on the cusp of doubling in size, and with the opportunity from the new Robinvale facility I think it is only up and up.”
