Pistachios are common abroad. After being introduced to China, their prices have only risen but not fallen. Why are there so few farmers growing them?

During holidays or in daily life, people will eat more or less snacks, including various dried fruits. Compared with ordinary snacks, these dried fruits not only satisfy their appetite, but also have rich nutritional value. Except for the most common melon seeds and peanuts, a large part of these dried fruits were originally produced abroad, so the prices are relatively high, including the popular pistachios.

Pistachios are also called green nuts or hazelnuts, but the name pistachio is the most widely used, mainly because the fruit opens its mouth when it is ripe, much like a person opening his mouth to smile. The name also shows how enjoyable this dried fruit is, especially when Chinese New Year is approaching and pistachio sales increase dramatically. However, many people don’t know that pistachios are not native to China.

Pistachios are mainly produced in Iraq, Iran and other countries. They were not introduced and cultivated in China until the 1990s. This dried fruit, which is very common abroad, not only tastes good, but is also rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Therefore, there was almost no change in price after the introduction into China. At least one pound of pistachios must be sold for 50 yuan on the market. However, despite this, very few farmers grow pistachio trees in our country. Since the market prospect of pistachio trees is so broad, why not plant them in large quantities in rural areas?

In fact, this is mainly due to the limitations of the growing environment. Currently in China, pistachio trees are only planted in some rural areas in Xinjiang and Gansu. This is because trees like dry and sunny environments, so they are usually planted in sunny mountainous areas at an altitude of 600 meters to 1200 meters. If there is a lot of rain and poor drainage, the pistachio tree will not grow well and will basically not bear fruit.

In addition, even in Xinjiang and Gansu, not all farmers are willing to plant pistachio trees. On the one hand, the growth cycle of pistachios is relatively long, and it usually takes more than 6 years for the trees to start bearing fruit. Furthermore, the quantity and quality of first-year results were somewhat less than satisfactory. It wasn't until the seventh year that they got on track. For farmers, this means that they have to spend a lot of human and financial resources in the early stage, the input costs are very high, and the output is stable after the fruits are officially produced, thus increasing the farmers' planting risks.

From this perspective, many farmers are unwilling to plant a large number of happy fruit trees because there is no suitable planting environment, because the input costs are high, the cycle is long, and the planting technology is also limited. As the saying goes, rare things are valuable. So it is not difficult to understand why pistachios are so expensive in the market.