In Castilla-La Mancha there is an unexpected crop that lives a record campaign and quadruple production: the pistachio

The pistachio is more than a tasty dry fruit. It is also a millmillonary business and in full expansion that, according to The forecasts Data Bridge will exceed 5.8 billion dollars worldwide in less than a decade. In Spain (especially Castilla-La Mancha) Farmers They have noticed of that potential and are dedicating hectares and more hectares of field. Now the Castellanomanchegas cooperatives leave us a clue for how forceful that expansion is being: they expect this campaign to be their production spray records, multiplying by four The results of last exercise.

One more test of the Pistachization of the fields.

A fact: 8,900 tons. If the forecasts of the sector are met, 2025 will be a good year for the Spanish pistachio. Well no, great. At least if we talk about production. On Wednesday agro-food cooperatives Castilla-La Mancha (an organization that brings together almost 600 organizations of the region) revealed that this campaign expects to reap some 8,900 tons of fruit, which would far exceed the production level of last year and give a new sample of the accelerated rhythm to which They expand The pistachmen for the Castellanoleon field.

Does it increase so much? Yeah. According to the agency Agrícola those 8,900 tons would quote the production of last year, which encrypts in just over 2,200. Moreover, community cooperatives already speak of “the greatest registered pistachio harvest to date” in their territory. They also hope that much of the fruits will be “high caliber and quality” and leave ecological farms.

The Government of Castilla-La Mancha Calculate That in 2023 the dry pistachio harvest with shell reached 5,580 T in its territory, almost 75% of national production. Even taking that data as a reference, higher than 2024the increase provided by farmers for the current harvest would be remarkable.

Why is it important? So it reveals to us about the sector and how it expands in the region. It is not strange that the volume of production dance from one campaign to another, sometimes increasing and in others decreasing. Just a year ago, for example, Castilla-La Mancha cooperatives were waiting for a “prick” in the amount of fruit collected (in November the forecasts pointed to about 4,900 tons of dry pistachio) due to the window character of the trees.

Even so that cooperatives foresee that production quadruples this campaign, leaving a result that is promised historical, reveals an increasingly evident trend in Castilla-La Mancha: the growing weight pistachio plantations in the region. Figures on the margin, arrives with a walk through the Province of Toledo To observe how hectares of land that until recently they were dedicated to cereals or grass have been converted into plantations focused on the pistachio.

Another figure: 64,400 hectares. The organization has shared Some figures that help to better understand that expansion. According to the spokesman of the Sectorial Commission, Ignacio Lobato, the surface of pistachio planted in Castilla-La Mancha has reached this year the 64,400 hectares. Of these are “in production” 16,400, the vast majority (12,215 ha) in dry land. In fact, the harvest increase this year is explained by the “input into production” of 5,550 ha.

“This expansion of the surface in production represents a significant increase of 40% compared to the previous year, which is estimated there were 11,700 ha in production,” insists The professional group. It is not an exclusive phenomenon of the Manchega region. Recently Agroptium published A report That the increase in the surface dedicated to cultivation in Spain as a whole: from 15,000 ha in 2016, it went to 70,000 in 2022 and almost 78,500 in 2023.

Earrings of Castilla-La Mancha. The forecasts of Castilla-La Mancha import because the region has managed to make a fundamental foothold in the pistacher sector nationally and internationally, even sneaking Among the main ones Pistacheras del Mundo areas. The data of the autonomous government show that the region brings together around 80% of the total area dedicated to pistachio plantations in the country and that at least 2023 concentrated almost 75% of the production: 5,580 t of dry fruit with a shell of the 7,550 t shelter of the whole of Spain.

Images | Jake Belluci (Flickr)

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