Tehran, YJC. Official says radical production decrease has replaced Iran’s Kerman province as the world’s center for pistachio with California, US.
Head
of Iran’s Association for Pistachio says that in the past few years the country’s
harvest has plummeted from 280 thousand to 150 thousand tons, making Kerman
province give its place as world’s pistachio hub to California, US.
Mohsen
Jalalpour added "Producing 270 thousand tons of pistachio, the US has a production
1.5 times that of Iran. Since it exports half the harvest, it is expected as
well that this year it will gain the first place in pistachio export.
It is
to regret that now California is called the world’s center for pistachio
whereas the title belonged to Kerman barely a few years ago, he mentioned.
Jalalpour
also said that there is American pistachio being sold at Iranian markets "with
quality in no way comparable to the Iranian.”
Iran
used to be "the” center for the export of a number of agricultural products,
including pistachio.