A total of 56,298 tons of pistachio worth $405.04 million were exported from Iran in the financial year 2022-23 (ended March 20), registering a 58.4% and 55.7% fall in terms of weight and value respectively compared with the year before.
Russia with 7,329 tons of imports was the top export destination for Iranian pistachio during the period. India with 7,139 tons came next, followed by Iraq, the UAE, Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Germany, Turkey and Tajikistan, respectively, IRIB News reported.
Iranian pistachio were exported to 57 countries during the period.
Iran’s pistachio exports have been on the decline since the fiscal 2007-08 when exports reached 265,000 tons.
According to Daryoush Salempour, an Agriculture Ministry official, exports stood at $915 million in the fiscal 2021-22.
The tonnage of exports reportedly stood at 135,000 tons that year.
“Pistachio orchards account for 20% of all Iranian orchards and are mainly located in the provinces of Kerman, Khorasan Razavi, South Khorasan, Yazd, Fars, Semnan, Markazi, Qom, Qazvin, Sistan-Baluchestan, Tehran and Isfahan,” he said.
Salempour noted that drought, frost, groundwater depletion and rising water salinity are posing serious threats to Iran’s pistachio orchards.
In Kerman, the main pistachio producing province of Iran, many farmers say their orchards have dried up due to the acute water crisis and many others have left the province to rebuild orchards in other places across the country like Saveh and Qazvin.
Orchard owners in Kerman say they have dug wells as deep as 150 meters in search of water, only to find underground resources have dried up.
Kerman accounts for the lion’s share of Iran’s pistachio output.
According to Farhad Agah, a member of the Iran Pistachio Association, apart from drought, high temperatures as well as early frosts in the spring cause damage to pistachio orchards and harvest in Kerman.
Iran’s pistachio exports have been on the decline since the fiscal 2007-08 when exports reached 265,000 tons, mainly as a result of the water crisis
“Drought is causing damage to local pistachio orchards. Once the best pistachio in the world was known to come from Iran and our exports brought in revenues as much as $1.5 billion. But now, all of this is at stake,” he said.
Pistachio was once touted as Iran’s most important non-oil exported commodity.
On average, Iran exports 80% of its total pistachio yields.
Mohammad Reza Bakhtiari, the former head of Kerman Regional Water Authority, affiliated with the Energy Ministry, noted that groundwater withdrawal in Kerman is almost three times as much as the global redline, and nearly six times the ideal average.
“At present, even providing the residents of Kerman with potable water is posing a challenge,” he said.
He added that illegal and unrestrained digging and withdrawals from wells in the province have increased over the past few decades.
These have led to the depletion of groundwater resources, degradation of water quality and an increase in water salinity.
According to Bakhtiari, every year, pistachio trees on 12,000 to 15,000 hectares of orchards are dying in Kerman due to water shortage.
The global pistachio market size was estimated at $4,165.86 million in 2022, $4,298.15 million in 2023, and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 3.37% to reach $5,431.84 million by 2030, according to Research And Markets.
Iran is the US industry’s main global competitor in pistachio production.
As Iranian production continues to wane because of water availability and other issues, this can bode well for a US industry with obvious growth trends.
World production of pistachios in 2022 exceeded 1.5 billion pounds, with just over half of that coming from the United States. Iran, Turkey, Syria and the EU made up the balance of that production, Farm Progress reported.
In 2012, the US had 57% of the world export share of pistachios. Iran had 42% of the world market share. Last year, the US market share grew to 67% as Iran lost its market share, now down to 24%. Turkey’s market share grew to 7%.
