Californian pistachio production is expected to double by 2020 to meet a rapidly growing demand for the nut in China, according to US newspaper The Sacramento Bee.
US pistachio exports to China have risen from 453 tonnes per annum to over 36,000 tonnes per annum in the last 10 years.
“We have a great market in China,” American Pistachio Growers director of global marketing, Judy Hirigoyen, told The Sacramento Bee.
“We could literally sell our entire crop to just China.”
According to Hirigoyen, a growing middle class, with increased spending power, has driven the growth in the Chinese market.
The Californian pistachio industry is banking on this middle class continuing to expand, with the area under plantation in the US state increasing from 100,000 acres in 2001 to 240,000 acres in 2013.
Californian production is tipped to reach 450,000 tonnes by 2020.
The emergence of China as a key market has been supported by several marketing campaigns in the Asian nation.
In 2011, the American Pistachio Growers launched a road show in China, aimed at increasing awareness about the nutritional value of the nuts.
“They ate it up,' according to Noelle Freeman, Miss California 2011, one of the spokespeople for the road show.
