Speaking in the Pistachio Roundtable of the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council (INC), the Turkish delegate stated: A Glance at the Industry’s Present State and Future”
Ozan Yeşilir:
“Turkey had a record pistachio crop during the 2024–2025 crop year. With a large crop, despite strong domestic consumption and a firm exchange rate, pistachio prices were maintained at high levels. Turkish pistachios are predicted to be an off-year for next year.”. But on the flip side, we still see the cultivation of new orchards in the nation, and in the long term, Turkey will become a sustainable and reliable source of pistachio supply. Starting with the crop season of 2024–2025, we can notice that customers everywhere in the world are getting more concerned about Turkish pistachios.
We intend to harvest between 130,000 and 140,000 metric tons of pistachios next year
While Turkey experienced severe frost and heat loss, pistachio orchards were not negatively impacted and we don’t see this causing overall production significant damage. The regions of Turkey that pistachios are cultivated are distant and widespread. The west regions of Turkey, where pistachios are cultivated in limited manners, were affected, but the large pistachio-cultivating regions weren’t seriously harmed.
Turkey pistachio yields have steep fluctuations between years of high and low production. The primary reason is that the majority of the crop continues to come from venerable trees. Within the next 5 to 10 years, this spread will probably close as younger trees start producing.
As can be seen from the chart of Turkey’s pistachio exports, we look forward to exporting about 13,000 to 14,000 tons this year. With higher demands worldwide and rising trends of pistachios, we foresee an uptrend in Turkey’s pistachio kernel exports. The pistachio plant area is growing in Turkey.
Per capita, Turkey alone consumes the highest pistachios in the world. Of course, Dubai’s chocolate industry has influenced the local industry, but aside from that, we have a lot of traditional sweets that contain pistachios. There are so many innovative pistachio food products, primarily pistachio paste, that have been introduced to the market in recent years, with high demand.
The main reason why Turkish pistachios are not exported in large quantities is due to their comparatively higher price compared to Iran and the U.S. Our farmers and exporters have not yet been so active in international markets. However, we will ultimately have to export—this quantity of production can simply not be consumed by the domestic market alone. So, Turkish pistachios will certainly be exported in the future, but not in the immediate future.
Source: INC
