The oldest artifact related to pistachio found in the world is a half-burnt piece of wood dating back to the Stone Age, discovered around a thousand years ago in the vicinity of Fasa County (Fars Province) and currently preserved in the Pars Museum.
The famous Greek historian Herodotus also made references to pistachio cultivation in Iran in his writings. Therefore, the pistachio tree has a historical background in Iran, and it is believed that this product has been cultivated in Iran for about four thousand years. Iranians have recognized the nutritional benefits, medicinal properties, and intelligence-enhancing qualities of pistachios since ancient times.
According to ancient sources, Darius referred to the Persians as 'pistachio eaters,' and the Parthians were described as men who, from childhood, always consumed pistachios as a nutritious, invigorating, and compact food.
Formation of the word 'pistachio' in Iran
Dr. Khanlari attributed the Persian word 'pistachio' to the people of the northern regions of Khorasan. He stated that the word 'pistachio' is a very ancient Iranian word derived from the people settled in the pistachio-rich region of southern Jihun about the Khurasan.
Pistachio, a heavenly fruit!
Mohammad ibn Jarir Tabari, a third-century Islamic historian, considered the emergence of pistachio simultaneous with the settlement of Adam on Earth and wrote that the fruits given to Adam during creation included ten fruits with shells and ten fruits without shells, and pistachio was among the shelled fruits along with walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, etc.
The first regions of pistachio tree growth in Iran
The wild pistachio forests and self-sown pistachio trees in the northeastern region of Iran, from Sari to Abadeh Tabbat, have ancient origins.
It is believed that the pistachio tree existed in Iran about 3-4 thousand years ago and was cultivated and used in Iran before spreading to other parts of the world, especially countries around the Mediterranean Sea.
Among the opinions expressed regarding the origin of pistachio trees, besides Iran, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan are also mentioned.
Currently, Kerman Province and the Rafsanjan region are considered the most important pistachio-producing areas in Iran and the world. There are now over 500,000 hectares of fertile and non-fertile pistachio orchards in the country.
History of pistachio exports from Iran to the world
For about 200 years, surplus pistachios consumed in Iran have been exported abroad. The majority of Iran's pistachio exports at that time were supplied from pistachio-producing regions such as Qazvin, Damghan, Khorasan, Yazd, Isfahan, and regions around Isfahan, and mostly went to Russia.
The history of regions such as Rafsanjan, Kerman, Sirjan, Yazd, Isfahan, and Zarrin between 100 and 250 years ago, and the history of cities such as Shahrbabak, Zahedan, Saravan, Dargaz, Varamin, Abadeh, and Darab in pistachio cultivation is less than 100 years.
Pistachio has 75 genera and 600 species. According to statistics from various pistachio-producing countries, only seven countries have commercial significance, and of the total 400,000 tons of pistachios produced worldwide, Iran ranks first with about 57% of production, the United States second with 17%, and Turkey third with 13%. Currently, Kerman Province in Iran, with 81.4% of the total cultivated area of fertile pistachio trees, is the largest pistachio-producing region in Iran and the world. Important varieties of Kerman pistachios include Ouhadi, Kaleh Ghouchi, Fandoghi, Akbari, White Shell, Amiri, Shasti, and Jandaghi.
Iranian pistachios are named after their historical background and production region. Pistachios from Damghan, Qazvin, Ravar, Sabzevar, and Qom are among them. It is worth mentioning that, in addition to the mentioned cases, pistachios are also classified based on their shape. Varieties such as Badami, Ahmadaghaei, Akbari, Fandoghi, Kaleh Ghouchi, White Shell, Green Pistachio, Khengari, etc., can be categorized according to shape.
These different pistachio varieties have different ripening times, divided into early-maturing and late-maturing types. Early-maturing types ripen in late Mordad (mid-August), while late-maturing types ripen in early Mehr (early October). Pistachio is a tropical fruit. Unlike almond and walnut trees, pistachio trees are dioecious, and their male and female parts are separate. Pistachio is a fruit that is fertile one year and less fertile the next year.
Currently, the area under pistachio cultivation in Iran is over 360,000 hectares, with Kerman Province having a total of over 270,000 hectares of fertile and non-fertile orchards, producing 77% of the country's total output, making it the most important pistachio-producing region in Iran and the world. Other pistachio-producing provinces in Iran include Yazd, Khorasan, Fars, Semnan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Qazvin, Markazi, Isfahan, and Qom, which have allocated over 90,000 hectares of remaining cultivated land in Iran to themselves."
Now the question is whether pistachios are exported from Italy besides Iran?
Apart from Iranian farms, it should be known that Iran is not the sole producer of pistachios, and this valuable edible commodity is also produced in other parts of the world. One of these areas is the Bronte region on the island of Sicily, Italy. While Italy is known as one of the most beautiful, exciting, and tourist-friendly countries in the world, the Sicily region has always been one of the most famous and popular areas for foreign tourists. If you plan to travel to Italy and want to become familiar with the pistachio production industry in a region other than Iran, Sicily is the best choice. So, if you have experienced staying in hotels in Kerman and Yazd, visiting pistachio orchards in this region and are looking for a different experience in this field, a trip to the pistachio farms in the hills near Mount Etna is our recommendation to you.
Through the lovely green eyes and beautiful smile of a friendly friend, she shares her experience in pistachio production, which has been passed down to her daughter Maria and then to her granddaughter Samantha. Samantha is now the torchbearer of this family legacy. In Italy, pistachios are a highly valuable and popular culinary additive used by chefs and home cooks in various Italian dishes, desserts, cakes, and even jellies. The best and largest pistachios in Italy are produced in the city of Bronte in the Sicily region, and they are referred to as the 'Sicilian Green Gold.' These pistachios are so valuable and luxurious that they have been subject to theft during the harvest season, and they must be protected day and night.
Pistachio production in Bronte is different from other regions worldwide where pistachios are cultivated. In most parts of the world, the lands where pistachio trees are planted are flat and accessible to modern mechanized and irrigation systems. However, pistachio trees in Bronte grow in a rocky volcanic area, making it inaccessible for machinery, and all activities must be done manually. Nevertheless, due to the proximity to Mount Etna, the soil in this area is rich in volcanic minerals, enhancing the aroma and taste of the pistachios produced here. For this reason, Bronte pistachios, constituting only one percent of the pistachios produced globally, hold a special place, and their price is much higher than other types of pistachios.
In Bronte, pistachio production, from harvesting pistachios to pruning the trees, is the responsibility of the male members of the family. Traditionally, women are involved in less physically demanding production tasks such as labeling, accounting, and packaging pistachios. Pirachini emphasizes that the pistachio industry in Bronte has always been male-dominated, and it will remain so. Therefore, gender roles are still prevalent in this industry, and his family is the only exception to this rule.
History of Pistachios in California, USA
In the early decades of the 19th century, the pistachio product reached America, and the avid customer in America was immigrants who had come from the Middle East to New York. The connection between pistachios and America deepened in 1904 when pistachios were first planted in American soil. At that time, Iran was the uncontested leader in pistachio production worldwide. Changes in the market began in 1929 when an American botanist named William White Hoag traveled to Iran to collect various pistachio seeds. He was an employee of the United States Department of Agriculture and traveled through the land of Pars to find pistachios that could be cultivated in America. After six months, he returned to America, hoping to plant the 10 kilograms of pistachio samples he had brought from Iran. The pistachio in the Sacramento Valley region, which had fertile soil for agriculture, became the host of Mr. Whitehouse's pistachios. It took years for Whitehouse to test his samples. He carefully observed the trees and gradually saw the pistachio hulls change from light green to yellow and pink. However, out of the thousands of seeds he had collected, only one was compatible with the climate of that region, and that pistachio was one of the pistachios harvested from the orchards belonging to Mr. Agah, the former pistachio producer in Rafsanjan, Iran.
Comparison of Iranian and American Pistachios
Iran is the only country with a diverse range of pistachios in terms of shape, color, visual grandeur, size, dimensions, and the specifications of its kernels. The pistachio products of other countries are generally uniform and lack much diversity. Most of these countries have one primary pistachio variety, and even the pistachio varieties of some countries are similar, with little difference in specifications. In America, except for the Kerman variety (named after the pistachio-producing province in Iran and one variety in America), three to four other varieties have been obtained through grafting. However, these varieties not only do not have a prominent advantage over the Kerman variety but also have negative differences compared to it. For this reason, they have not had much development, and the Kerman variety dominates over other varieties. The Kerman variety in California, regardless of the differences it has in nature compared to a similar variety in the city of Kerman in Iran, also has some differences in the appearance of its kernels compared to Iranian pistachio varieties. If the kernel of the Kerman variety pistachio product in California is split into two halves with a sharp knife, a cavity in the kernel is noticeable. This type of cavity is present in almost all pistachios produced in California, and only its small and large sizes vary.
Iran's Competitors in Global Markets
Over more than ninety years, between 1889 and 1980, the total amount of Iranian pistachio exports to 80 countries worldwide was 221,000 tons. Almost half of this amount, about 105,000 tons, went only to America. During this period, Turkey was Iran's major competitor in the global market, which, due to the low quality of its product, did not have much importance. However, since 1980, with the severance of Iran's relations with America and during and after the imposed war, numerous problems and challenges have arisen in the fields of production, trade, and international competition for Iranian pistachios. Some of these issues are very complex