The world’s biggest in-shell pistachio harvest has hit the home run in California amid record-shattering production projections.

2025’s output might surpass 2023’s high of 1.5 billion pounds worth over $3 billion, but will still fall short of initial targets.

Forecasts had initially projected the fall crop at 1.8 billion pounds but revised that figure downward as picking progressed.

But farmers in the productive southern part of Central Valley in the heart of the state still expect a record crop.

The valley kickstarted its 2025 picking campaign end August in the production capital of Kern County, home to Golden Hills cultivars.

Early September, other counties got into the harvest groove in a process that will end this November. 

Richard Kreps, chairman of the American Pistachio Growers organization in August had praised the maturing fruit as having the “most uniform fill” in over 15 years.

Kreps had then offered a sober production figure of over 1.5 billion pounds, which would effectively top the 2023 record. 

Propelling this gain is Central Valley’s pistachio acreage boom that spiked by nearly 30,000 acres a year between 2018 and 2022. By 2024, there were 480,000 pistachio-bearing acres statewide.

This large swathe of land helps California supply 99% of federal pistachio supplies, which in turn represent 2/3rds of global supplies.

Profitable Harvest at Home and Abroad  

Given its lion’s share in the global market, the United States commands profitable markets worldwide.

In mid-May 2025, pistachios further attracted a China tariff reduction from 125% to 10% in a Geneva, Switzerland agreement.

Besides, China remains a new major market for the American crop along with the likes of India and Brazil.

In the home context, the wholesale price is pretty steady most seasons. On November 6, 2025, California Curated quoted Mark Arax citing that his San Joaquin Valley crop sells at $4.25 a pound.

The yield rates at the valley also reach 38 pounds to the tree, convertible financially to $162 a tree, according to Arax. With such margins, California can expect a breakthrough pistachio harvest this year, per the below statistical projections.

California 2025 and Beyond Pistachio Statistics 

Providing 99% of the federal crop annually, California is the capital of pistachios in the United States. Helping this status quo is ever-increasing acreage at 28,489 acres annually from 2023 to 2031, per the American Pistachios organization. While actual crop-bearing acreage was at 488,000 acres in 2025, new plantings totaled 583,400 acres in 2023. Projections reveal that all plantings could hit 811,300 acres come 2031.

This acreage has come a long way since the 1854 introduction of the crop in California. By 1977, harvested acreage had risen to a modest 1,700 acres, which would soar to 178,000 acres in 2012. Production in turn peaked in 2023 at 1.5 billion pounds, a record that the 2025 harvest looked on capable of shattering. 

Which counties produce the most pistachios in California?

Kern county in Central valley represents 42% of the annual pistachio crop in CA as of 2012, per the government of California. Kern, Fresno, Madera, Tulare and Kings counties together produce some 96% of the statewide pistachios. 

Are pistachios productive in CA?

Due to gaining agricultural insights, California’s pistachios turned highly productive starting the early 2010s, averaging 3,160 pounds /acre. Beforehand in the 1979-82 period, the yield rate was as low as 930 pounds/acre.