Pistachio Market Update – November 2022

By: Brad Larsen

The 2022 crop harvest is all but over. The most recent Administrative Committee for Pistachios (ACP) inventory report shows the current crop receipts at 864 million pounds. An updated report will be released in the coming weeks and should reflect the final crop size, which is expected to be roughly 875 million pounds. This will end up being 25%, or 300 million pounds, lower than pre-harvest industry expectations of a crop size between 1.1-1.2 billion pounds. As just about all sellers were expecting a larger crop this year, and lowering prices throughout the season as a result, they all sold early to get ahead of it. This resulted in the industry being further sold than usual going into harvest. With the crop coming in much smaller than expected, all California sellers are now further sold than they are comfortable being this time of year. As a result, we expect pricing to remain firm at least until Q1 2023.

The strength of sales and shipments in the first half of this crop year will determine pricing in the back half. A large 2023 crop is expected, and nobody will want to carry-out large volumes from this 2022 crop year. The industry will need to be in a good sold and shipped position by the end of Q1 to keep pricing firm in the second half of this crop year.