Exceptional Australian off-year pistachio crop

The majority of Australia's pistachio crop is grown along the Murray River in southern New South Wales, north-western Victoria, and South Australia. This year some growers are reporting the best "off-year" crop they have ever seen.Grower and processor Chris Joyce from Kyalite explains: "Pistachios are an alternate-bearing crop, they have a very big crop and then they have a smaller crop, this year should have been one of the lower crops. The quality of this year's crop is absolutely extraordinary."We have low percentages of closed shell nuts and low percentages of damaged nuts on the tree and the yields are well above what we would have ever expected to achieve in an off crop, so this is a good year."The low staining and high yields should mean better returns for growers who are paid on quality and quantity.Chris Joyce said he was expanding his plantings and was aware of other producers doing the same.He said the industry was growing gradually and there was no risk of domestic oversupply. "Currently Australia is only growing about half of what we consume so we think that very simply we could double production and continue to satisfy the Australian market." Source: abc.net.au