LOST HILLS, Calif. (AP) — At a sprawling factory deep in California’s farmland, millions of shells rush down a metal chute and onto a conveyor belt where they are inspected, roasted, packaged and shipped to grocery stores across the country. whole world.

Pistachios are growing quickly in California, where farmers are devoting more land to a crop considered hardier and more drought-tolerant in a drought-prone state. dramatic variations in precipitation. The crop generated nearly $3 billion last year in California, and over the past decade the United States has overtaken Iran to become the world’s largest exporter of nuts.

“There’s been an explosion of plantings over the last 10 or 15 years, and these trees are coming online,” said Zachary Fraser, president and CEO of American Pistachio Growers, which represents more of 800 farmers in the southwest United States. we are starting to see the fruit of the vision of people 40 years ago.

California produces more than a third of the nation’s vegetables and three-quarters of its fruits and nuts, according to state agricultural statistics. Pistachios have jumped over the past decade to become the state’s sixth-largest agricultural commodity by value, ahead of long-standing crops such as strawberries and tomatoes, data shows.

Much of the harvest is destined for China, where it is a popular treat during the Lunar New Year. But industry experts say Americans are also eating more pistachios, which were rarely available in grocery stores a generation ago and are now a snack found almost everywhere. They are sold with or without shells and their flavors range from salt and pepper to roasted honey.

The Wonderful Co., a $6 billion agricultural company known for brands such as Halo tangerines and FIJI Water, is the biggest name in the pistachio business. The company has been growing pistachios since the 1980s, but it ramped up operations in 2015 after developing a rootstock that produces up to 40 percent more nuts with the same soil and water, Rob Yraceburu said , president of Wonderful Orchards.

Today, Wonderful produces between 15 and 20 percent of the U.S. pistachio crop, he said. Its pistachio orchards stretch across vast swathes of dusty farmland northwest of Los Angeles, also lined with pomegranates and dairies. The trees are shaken each fall and the nuts transported to a massive processing facility to be prepared for sale.

“There is an increasingly growing demand for pistachios,” Yraceburu said. “The world wants more.”

Pistachios are poised to withstand periods of drought in California better than its even more important nut crop, almonds, which generated nearly $4 billion in the state last year, experts said. sector.

Pistachio orchards can be maintained with minimal water in times of drought, unlike almonds and other more sensitive crops. The trees also rely on wind rather than bees for pollination and can produce nuts for decades longer, Yraceburu said.

Many California farmers who grow these two nuts are applying lessons learned from almonds to the pistachio boom. Almond production, much larger than pistachio production, also soared in California, but prices fell amid a post-pandemic supply glut as farmers struggled with drought and rising input costs, leading some to not replant aging orchards when it is time to harvest them. out.

Pistachio growers say they hope to avoid a similar fate and are working to keep demand for the nut ahead of supply. For example, American Pistachio Growers recently signed a sponsorship deal with a major cricket player in India in hopes of helping promote pistachios in that country, Fraser said.

The rise of pistachios is part of California farmers’ transition to perennial crops that offer higher yields than commodities such as cotton, according to a 2023 report from the Public Policy Institute of California.

Perennial crops, which are not replanted every year, cannot be replaced in dry years, which can be difficult in prolonged drought, said Brad Franklin, a researcher at the institute’s Water Policy Center.

But pistachios have benefits that other perennial crops don’t. They can live longer without water and grow in saline soils. That could make them attractive to California farmers who face limits on the amount of groundwater they can pump under a state law aimed at conserving this critical resource, he said .

When farmers decide what to plant, “I think the most important thing is the market and where the market is,” Franklin said. “And the water is right underneath.”

Farmers across California are bracing for the impact of the 2014 state law aimed at ensuring more sustainable use of groundwater after years of over-pumping depleted basins and eroding water quality water in some rural areas. About one-fifth of California’s pistachio crop is grown in areas that rely exclusively on groundwater for irrigation, Yraceburu said, adding that he expects some of those orchards will eventually stop producing.

But over the next few years, the acreage devoted to pistachios is expected to continue to grow in the state, as trees planted in recent years come into production. That contrasts with the acreage devoted to almonds and walnuts, which levels off or declines as orchards are removed, said David Magaña, senior analyst at Rabobank in Fresno, California.

Pistachios require about 3 acre-feet (3,700 cubic meters) of water per acre (0.4 hectare), compared to almost 4 acre-feet (4,934 cubic meters) for almonds and produce more per acre than almonds while achieving a higher price, he said.

“You see, all the value that the pistachio industry brings to California agriculture is approaching that of almonds with much less acreage,” Magaña said. “I haven’t seen any pistachio orchards uprooted.”