The long-awaited first pistachio crop in Georgia will be harvested this year and farmers have no doubt that the country may soon become an exporter of this crop, as stated by Otar Anguridze, the vice-president of the Pistachio Association, to Business-Partner. Mr Anguridze says the association began to pay special attention to pistachio cultivation in Georgia relatively recently, but the area of ​​pistachio plantations has already grown to 100 hectares. Originally, farmers were in no hurry to grow pistachio orchards because of their late entry into full fruiting.

“According to the information of our association, this year it is planned to lay pistachio orchards on several dozen hectares. Initially, this is an encouraging indicator. Georgia has not yet received a massive harvest of pistachios. It takes about 6-7 years from planting to get the first fruits,” said Otar Anguridze. When the pistachios planted earlier in the household plots bore fruit and justified themselves, this gave an incentive to farmers.

Read also: Nut business: 2020 market summary for walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios and other nuts

The demand for pistachios on the world market is growing, which, of course, causes an increase in prices for these products. “Pistachios are a rather expensive product on the world market and is used for many purposes. If we can grow high-quality pistachios, we have real preconditions for which our pistachios will take worthy positions in the world market,” the vice-president of the Pistachio Association is convinced.

Watch also: Technologies for growing pistachios in California (video)

Pistachios grown in Georgia are also predicted to have a good position in the market by Georgian scientists. For example, Dr Zviad Bobokashvili, an associate professor and Doctor of Agricultural Sciences and also Head of the Fruit Crops Research Department of the Research Center of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, confirmed to EastFruit that the first pistachio crops will be harvested in Georgia this year. He noted: “Unfortunately, the first harvest of pistachios have to wait a long time since this culture enters the full fruiting period rather late. It is unprofitable for farmers to engage in a perennial crop, which does not immediately pay off. However, the approach to this culture is changing; more and more areas are being allocated for pistachio orchards.”

Also, Dr Bobokashvili emphasized: “Pistachio orchards have been planted in the Sagarejoi municipality of the Kakheti region in Eastern Georgia. Wild pistachios (dull-leaved and also known as kevo trees) grows in parts in the Vashlovani reserve and the area along the entire length of this reserve to the Dedoplistskaroi municipality (Kakheti region), which is suitable for cultivation, or rather a revival of this culture, and is valuable in many respects. Since pistachios are one of the ancient cultures for Georgia, I would like to think that Georgian agrarians and scientists will make every effort to revive and spread it.”

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Tajikistan, with Korean specialists’ help, plans to expand the area of ​​pistachio plantations. Director of the Forestry Agency under the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan Abdujabbor Yusufzoda told about this at a press conference, reports Avesta.Tj.

According to Yusufzoda, currently, there are over 81,500 hectares of pistachio plantations on the republic’s territory. To update and expand them, negotiations are underway with foreign partners, including the Republic of Korea.

This work aims to create tree nurseries for growing pistachio trees and expand the area of ​​pistachio plantations. Within the framework of this cooperation, it is planned to create 30 hectares of new pistachio plantations.

See also: Nut business: 2020 market summary for walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios and other nuts

The Forestry Agency also reported that the republic is studying and introducing the practice of growing Turkish and Iranian varieties of pistachios.

The cost of one kilogram of pistachios in Tajikistan markets ranges from 60 to 140 somoni ($5.37 – 12.52).

You can watch the video “Pistachio Growing Technology in California” on our YouTube channel.

Сообщение 30 hectares of pistachio orchards to be planted in Tajikistan появились сначала на EastFruit.

Turkey’s revenues from pistachio exports amounted to $119 million in 2020, reports the Anadolu Agency citing the Association of Southeast Anatolia Exporters (GAIB). In 2019, the exports of pistachios from Turkey amounted to $130.35 million.

Most of the pistachios in Turkey are produced in the provinces of Sanliurfa and Gaziantep. Local producers refer to pistachios as “green gold” because of their great economic benefits and profitability.

Read also: Turkish tomato prices fell sharply in Ukraine

Last year, Turkey exported 10,875 tons of pistachios to 100 countries, including the United States, Britain, Australia, Maldives, China, Belarus, Rwanda, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Portugal, Ireland, India, and Japan.

Germany became the main importer of Turkish pistachios. Pistachio exports from Turkey to Germany increased by 63% compared to last year up to 2,064 tons. This is followed by China with 1,925 tons and Italy with 1,183 tons.

Сообщение Turkey exported pistachios to 100 countries in 2020 появились сначала на EastFruit.

The nut business in 2020 feared significant losses due to the coronavirus, as nuts are expensive and do not belong to essential products. However, in general, the fears of a decrease in consumption volumes did not materialise. Although, of course, there were some severe problems, which we will talk about in this final material. Also, EastFruit analysts will try to assess the prospects for the development of the nut business in 2021, emphasising Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Walnut

Let’s start with the essential nut crop for the region, which is undoubtedly the walnut. At the beginning of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, demand for walnuts fell sharply but gradually recovered. Overall, though, prices were lower than manufacturers expected. Perhaps, the main reason was not covid19, but the growth of world production of walnuts.

The world’s largest importers of walnuts Germany, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Mexico, Turkey and Japan, mainly increased their imports. Germany in the first nine months of 2020 increased imports by 41%, Japan by 22%, Spain by 16% and Mexico by 6%. Only Italy has slightly reduced imports of walnuts.

Turkey bought almost the same volume of walnuts as a year earlier. Still, the country changed its vector of supplies, sharply increasing walnuts imports from the United States and reducing purchases from Ukraine by almost three times. Germany and other major importers have also boosted their imports of US nuts. Germany has more than quadrupled its imports of American walnuts! Moldova also took advantage of the growth in walnuts imports to Germany and increased its supplies to this country.

The largest increase in purchases of walnuts by Turkey was from China. Earlier, Turkey almost did not import walnuts from China, but in 2020, the country bought more walnuts from China than from Ukraine. Therefore, one should not be surprised at the problems with the sale of walnuts from Ukraine and Moldova – after all, the United States exerted tremendous pressure on the world market, squeezing out competitors from the most attractive markets. As a result, both Moldova and Ukraine focused on exporting to those EU countries where they were already present. Nevertheless, Ukraine reduced its revenue from walnut exports in 10 months of 2020 by a quarter, although the export tonnage increased.

This year, Moldova appeared in the fruit and vegetable business news mainly with the word “drought”. Naturally, the walnut market also suffered, the yield and quality decreased.

Georgia was one of the leading newsmakers of the region’s nut business. Interestingly, Georgia has already planted more than 3,000 hectares of walnuts within the framework of the “Plant the Future” state support program!

Chandler walnut variety is the gold standard in the United States. Therefore many post-Soviet countries are actively planting it. The Chandler variety occupies almost all industrial walnut orchards in Uzbekistan and Georgia. In Moldova, there are also many areas under this variety, and even in Ukraine, many large enterprises plant hundreds of hectares of Chandler walnut.

Therefore, the news that in Georgia, this variety did not justify itself and did not give the desired results were shocking. However, Doctor of Agricultural Science Zviad Bobokashvili hastened to reassure everyone, explaining the reasons for the failures and proposing real solutions to the Chandler plantations’ problems in Georgia.

Many also liked our video from the largest Georgian walnut growing farm with 100% of the plantations under the Chandler variety. The video showed how American walnut harvesting equipment works, how walnuts are cleaned, dried, refined, and processed.

While Georgia is rapidly expanding the area under walnuts, the country’s entrepreneurs understand that without drying, cleaning and other processing, the walnut industry will not produce the desired result. Therefore, the country is already witnessing a boom in the construction of enterprises for processing walnuts.

Who knows, perhaps one day the exports of walnuts will eventually generate more revenue for Georgia than famous Georgian wines’ exports?

What does 2021 have in store for us? Will global demand for walnuts grow?

“It is clear that walnut acreage is growing in most countries around the world, even in the United States, which is already the clear market leader. It means that if we do not consider the periodic fluctuations in production due to climatic cataclysms, one should expect an increase in production at a rate that outstrips the growth in consumption over the next decade. Therefore, the efficiency of growing walnuts and their quality parameters will come to the fore. Poor quality walnuts will become increasingly difficult to sell, and this is a wake-up call for Ukraine and Moldova, which continue to export, as a rule, non-varietal walnuts,” says Andriy Yarmak, an economist at the Investment department of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

In conclusion, here are the most-read articles on walnuts on the EastFruit portal in 2020:

• Four varieties of low-growing and early-harvested nuts are already in the State Register of Varieties of Ukraine.
• Ivanhoe walnut variety is a competitor of the long-term market leader Chandler walnut.
• Top-3 most promising walnut varieties for Moldova.

In 2020, among the most popular videos on our Youtube channel, there were several videos about walnuts: “A seven-year-old Chandler walnut orchard in California“, “How to get 3 tons of walnuts per hectare in the third year after planting” and “Harvesting Chandler walnuts in a large modern orchard with drying and processing Agrovia GE“.

Almonds

The main news of the year on the almond market was the collapse of world prices due to a sharp increase in production. The USA and Spain had unprecedented almond harvests. Other countries were also actively increasing their production of almonds. Thanks to lower prices, almonds’ global consumption is expected to rise sharply, which is good news.

Investors in Georgia are actively expanding the area under almonds. There are already farms managing thousands of hectares of almond orchards. In particular, Adjara Group will expand the area under its almond orchards to an incredible 5,000 hectares!

The organic almond segment is also actively developing. The opinion of a foreign investor in almond orchards that Georgia will be the new California of world almond production aroused great interest. There are already superintensive almond orchards in Georgia, and, according to producers, they allow to get much higher yields of almonds per hectare.

Azerbaijan is not lagging behind Georgia: they are also actively planting almond orchards and are already starting to construct the largest almond processing enterprise. For example, the company AZBADAM has 500 hectares of almond orchards and is ready to help others bring almonds to marketable condition.

Despite the high weather risks, Ukraine is also actively trying to enter the growing almond business, planting locally bred almond orchards because the USA or Spain experience is not relevant here. By the way, neighbouring Moldova is also actively developing the cultivation of almonds. According to various estimates, this country has already planted more than 2,600 hectares of almond orchards.

Considering that the USA is a monopolist on the global almond market, it is not surprising that our detailed article on the technologies of growing, harvesting and processing almonds in California, USA, was trendy in 2020. Many people also watched the video on the technology and economics of growing and marketing Almonds in California on our Youtube channel.

But the region that is perfect for growing almonds – Central Asia, particularly Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, the countries included in the EastFruit region – so far show a low level of activity in this segment. Here, almonds and pistachios are considered forest crops and many do not know about the possibility of their cultivation in commercial plantings.

Considering the sharp drop in world prices for almonds, investor interest in this nut may slightly decrease. Nevertheless, production will continue to grow, given the large areas of young plantations around the world. It means that the almond market situation will be the same as in the walnut market: efficiency and quality will come to the fore.

Hazelnut

Unlike walnuts, almonds and pistachios, the world market for hazelnuts is not controlled by the United States. Here, the undoubted long-term leader is Turkey, which in 2019 received the highest harvest of hazelnuts in history. Italy also has vast areas under hazelnuts, but it consumes them in record volumes; therefore, Italy is one of the major importers.

In 2020, the main news was the loss of hazelnuts harvests in the two largest producing countries: in Turkey because of rains and other weather calamities, and in Italy because of frosts. Therefore, world prices for hazelnuts, in contrast to walnuts and almonds prices, were very favourable. By the way, the United States and Chile are also actively increasing their areas under almonds. EastFruit wrote an exclusive article on the forecast of the world hazelnut market.

Many in the nut business do not know that Azerbaijan is the second-largest exporter of hazelnuts in the world after Turkey. The main reason is that Russia traditionally bought the main export volume of Azerbaijani hazelnuts. However, recently, Azerbaijan has begun to increase hazelnuts’ exports to the EU, and Italy and Germany buy more and more hazelnuts from Azerbaijan. Therefore, EastFruit’s exclusive article on the situation and prospects for developing the hazelnut business in Azerbaijan aroused a lot of interest.

Georgia, which has been reducing hazelnuts’ exports for several years in a row due to the massive damage the marble bug has inflicted on the industry, seems to be starting to restore production and export volumes. By the end of 2020, the volume of exports of Georgian hazelnuts of the new crop in monetary terms amounted to $70.7 million and was 43.7% higher than a year ago ($49.2 million).

Ukraine is also actively expanding the area under hazelnuts, although it is mainly the suppliers of seedlings that make money. It is difficult to say whether the country will be an exporter of hazelnuts. Nevertheless, hazelnuts are consistently included in the rating of the most popular crops for the establishment of perennial plantings in Ukraine. The article about the experience of growing hazelnuts in Croatia in relation to the conditions of Ukraine was among the top articles of the year 2020. 

Moldova was also actively interested in hazelnuts. There were already more than 1,000 hectares of hazelnuts here. Therefore, articles on the prospects for growing hazelnuts in Moldova were also among the most read.

Even Belarus is already growing hazelnuts – the article about this case also fascinated our readers in 2020.

In general, the global hazelnut market in 2020 grew intensively – most of the leading countries increased both exports and imports. Therefore, interest in hazelnuts in the region will undoubtedly continue to grow.

Pistachio, macadamia, cashew

There is a high level of interest in pistachio in the EastFruit region. There is even a Pistachio Association in Georgia, and the country already planted its first orchards. Uzbekistan even announced plans to overtake the United States, Turkey and Iran in pistachio areas and is actively sharing its experience with Tajikistan, where pistachio is not yet industrially grown. There are already amateurs in Moldova and Ukraine who are trying to adapt pistachios to local growing conditions, but, of course, industrial pistachio cultivation is out of the question here.

Interestingly, the video “Pistachio cultivation technology in California” on our EastFruit Youtube channel continues to be the most popular of all, and the number of views is only growing.

The articles on macadamia nuts, the world trade of which is growing at a very high pace, also made it to the top at EastFruit portal. The macadamia nut is definitely popular with consumers, but it does not grow in this region. The situation is similar with the cashew nut: its sales are growing faster than other nuts, but we will not be able to grow it either.

Why are we writing about these nuts if they cannot be grown in the EEastFruit region? The point is that they are competing for the consumer’s wallets. If consumers buy more macadamia or cashews, they will buy fewer walnuts, hazelnuts, and almonds.

Сообщение Nut business: 2020 market summary for walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, pistachios and other nuts появились сначала на EastFruit.

According to EastFruit analysts, Georgia, which for a long time was a large net importer of walnuts, began to dramatically increase the export of this product. By the end of 2019, the export of walnut kernels from Georgia increased immediately by 10 times and reached 321 tons.

This trend was very impressive despite the relatively small volume and exports are still less than imports. In 2019, the revenue of Georgian companies from the export of walnuts in shell and walnut kernels exceeded $1 million for the first time reaching $1.4 million.

Read also: Nuts rose in price in Moldova and fell in price in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus – market overview for the 6th week of 2020.

Imports of walnut kernels to Georgia decreased over the year by 11% and amounted to 1100 tons. Ukraine remained the main supplier of these products to the Georgian market, which reduced supplies by 15% from 1,200 tons to 1,000 tons.

The main markets for Georgian walnuts in 2019 were Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Belarus. Approximately 16 tons of walnuts from Georgia were also exported to the United Arab Emirates, India, and the Czech Republic.

According to the economist of the investment department at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Andriy Yarmak, the export of nuts from Georgia may, over time, give the country more revenue than the export of wine. The expert believes that not only hazelnuts, which have long been one of the main export products, but also almonds, walnuts, and even pistachios can be successfully grown in Georgia. Additionally, it is likely that Georgia will be able to surpass competition on the world walnut market with Ukraine, Moldova, and Uzbekistan.

Сообщение Georgia increasing walnut exports – new competitor for Ukraine and Moldova появились сначала на EastFruit.

The total volume of the global pistachio market in 2019 grew by 4% compared to 2018 and reached $10.6 billion.

This was announced by the analytical agency IndexBox in a new report, “World – Pistachios – Market Analysis, Forecast, Size, Trends and Insights.”

The figures presented in the report reflect the total revenue of manufacturers and importers, excluding logistics costs, retail marketing costs and retailers’ margins, which will be included in the final price of products for consumers, says FruitNews.

Consumption by country

Countries with the highest consumption of pistachios in 2019 were Iran (490,000 tons), Turkey (263,000 tons) and the United States (255,000 tons), which together accounted for 67% of total consumption.

In value terms, the largest countries consuming pistachios were Iran ($3.7 billion), the United States ($2 billion) and Turkey ($1.6 billion). The combined share of these countries in 2019 was 69% of the total.

The countries with the highest per capita consumption of pistachios in 2019 were Iran (5.90 kg per person per year), Turkey (3.18 kg per person per year) and Hong Kong (3.12 kg per person per year).

Market forecast for 2019 – 2030

Pistachio consumption is predicted to grow in the next decade. Growth is projected at +1.1% per annum for the period from 2019 to 2030, which will lead to an increase in market size to 1.7 million tons by the end of 2030.

Production

Pistachio production in 2019 increased by 8.1% to 1.5 million tons. Total production from 2013 to 2019 increased by an average of 13.8% per year.

Production by country

Countries with the highest production of pistachios in 2019 were Iran (571,000 tons), the United States (484,000 tons) and Turkey (267,000 tons); their combined share was 88% of the total production.

See video also: Pistachio growing technologies in California

Cultivation area and yield

In 2019, the total area of ​​pistachio cultivation increased by 6.6% to 804,000 hectares compared to 2018. The total area of ​​pistachio cultivation grew by an average of 5.7% per year from 2013 to 2019. Also in 2019, the average pistachio yield was 1.9 tons per hectare. Yield growth in the period from 2013 to 2019 averaged +7.7% per year.

Import

Global imports of pistachios in 2019 grew by 15% to 439,000 tons. Total imports increased at an average annual rate of +3.2% from 2013 to 2019. And in value terms, imports of pistachios in 2019 amounted to $3.4 billion (according to IndexBox estimates).

Import by country

In 2019, China (113,000 tons), Hong Kong (65,000 tons), Germany (45,000 tons) and India (23,000 tons) became the main countries of pistachio imports. The combined share of these countries amounted to 56% of total world imports. This was followed by Italy (18,000 tons), Belgium (15,000 tons), Spain (15,000 tons), Russia (10,000 tons), Saudi Arabia (10,000 tons), Israel (9800 tons), Luxembourg (8500 tons) and France (8300 tons).

In value terms, the largest importing countries are China ($809 million), Hong Kong ($496 million) and Germany ($436 million). The combined share of these 3 countries reached 51% of total imports.

Import prices by country

The average import price of pistachios in 2019 was $7794 per ton, which is 2.4% less than in 2018. The most notable increase in the import price was recorded in 2015, when the import price reached $8208 per ton.

In 2019, the highest import prices for pistachios were observed in Italy ($10,948 per ton) and the lowest in Israel ($4799 per ton).

Сообщение IndexBox: volume of world pistachio market in 2019 grew by 4% появились сначала на EastFruit.