United States pistachio production reached 1.58 billion pounds on an in-shell basis in 2025, the largest crop in the country's history and the latest step in a climb that has run through the whole of this century.

The scale of that climb is easy to miss. American production first passed 200 million pounds in 2000, crossed 800 million pounds in 2016 and reached a billion pounds by 2020. Bearing acreage rose with it, increasing nearly fivefold over the past two decades as orchards planted years earlier came into production.

Demand has kept pace at home and abroad. ERS researchers estimate that per capita pistachio availability — the agency's proxy for how much people actually eat — stayed below almonds last season but overtook walnuts and pecans for the first time.

Exports matter more to a pistachio grower's price than to most other American fruit and nut producers. About half of the United States pistachio supply has been shipped abroad each season over the last decade, which makes overseas demand an influential factor in what domestic growers are paid.

The 2025 crop also marked the tenth straight year in which the United States led the world in pistachio exports.

For growers elsewhere weighing tree nuts as a high-value alternative crop, the American record is a reminder of how long the lead time is. The acreage that produced 1.58 billion pounds in 2025 was planted over the preceding two decades, and a nut orchard pays nothing for years before it pays anything at all.

The figures are drawn from the ERS Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook, March 2026 edition, compiled by Catharine Weber.

Source: USDA Economic Research Service