Understanding
Why are pistachios so expensive?
Twenty-two euros a kilo in a French supermarket, over fifty for French-grown pistachios, sixty for Bronte kernels. The price of a pistachio is explained almost entirely by what happens before it reaches the bag.
The pistachio is the most expensive of the nuts we put out with drinks, far ahead of the peanut and the almond. It is not a fad, nor a fat margin: it comes from a slow, temperamental tree, grown in very few countries, and half of its fruit gets thrown away. Let’s take it step by step.
How much do pistachios cost in France?
| Product | Price per kilo |
|---|---|
| In shell, salted and roasted, supermarket | €21 to €24 |
| Shelled | €40 to €66 |
| Shelled green kernels | about €70 |
| 100% pistachio paste | €48 to €88 |
| Bronte kernels (Sicily) | about €60 |
| French pistachios in shell, direct from the grower | over €50 |
A tree that makes you wait seven years
A pistachio tree gives nothing for five to seven years. It reaches a steady pace at around ten years, and full production between fifteen and twenty. All that time it has to be planted, watered and pruned: in France, the industry reckons on about €15,000 per hectare to establish an orchard, before a single harvest.
No other nut on the apéritif table needs that kind of head start. Peanuts are sown in spring and harvested in autumn.
A good harvest every other year
Pistachio trees show alternate bearing: after a heavy year, they rest. One Spanish record from an unirrigated orchard gives 2,077 kg per hectare one year and 508 the next. In Bronte, in Sicily, growers ended up harvesting only every other year.
So a grower has to live for two years on one and a half harvests. That risk is in the price.
Half the fruit is not edible
When you buy a kilo of in-shell pistachios, you are buying about 530 grams of kernels and 470 grams of shell. So it takes almost two kilos of in-shell pistachios to make one kilo of shelled ones. And that is after the blanks have been removed, around 10% for the Kerman variety in California, along with the shells that stayed closed.
This sum holds a surprise. At €22 a kilo in the shell, the kernel works out at just over €41 a kilo. That is the price of shelled pistachios in a French supermarket. Shelled or not, you pay roughly the same for the kernel: the shell costs nothing, it just adds weight.
A harvest that leaves no room for error
A pistachio has to come out of its outer skin within 24 hours of picking, or its shell stains, and then be dried straight away. That means machinery, labour and a processing shed all available at the same moment, for two or three weeks a year. In Bronte, where the harvest is done by hand on old lava flows, a farm worker costs at least €100 a day. We describe these steps in the article on the harvest.
Three countries for almost the whole world
The United States, Iran and Turkey grew 96% of the world’s crop in the 2025–2026 season, and the United States alone two thirds of it. A market this concentrated reacts to the slightest mishap: a drought in California, a frost in Iran, a crisis in the Middle East.
The next season is a case in point. The International Nut and Dried Fruit Council forecasts a world crop of 700,000 tonnes for 2026–2027, against 1.1 million the year before: a third less, because the American crop is expected to halve. In early 2026, Euronews was already reporting a 30 to 35% rise in a year, and in the autumn the trade press spoke of a further 26% rise since the start of the conflict in the Middle East.
Has Dubai chocolate pushed up the price of pistachios?
Yes, but not on its own. Dubai chocolate is a bar filled with pistachio cream and crispy shredded pastry, launched by a chocolate maker in the United Arab Emirates founded in 2021. A video posted in December 2023 was viewed more than 120 million times, and the whole chocolate industry went looking for pistachio kernels.
- The wholesale price of kernels went from $7.65 to $10.30 a pound in a year, according to a trader quoted by the Financial Times in April 2025: a rise of about 35%.
- In Europe, FoodNavigator gives €6.65 then €8.96 a pound over the same period.
- Iranian exports to the Emirates rose by 40% in six months.
- In France, a pastry chef interviewed by the TV channel France 2 spoke of a 20% rise in one month.
The nuance matters: the American crop just before this craze was a poor one. Dubai chocolate arrived on a market that was already tight, and made it tighter.
Why are French pistachios even more expensive?
Because they carry every handicap of a newcomer. The orchards are young, so they yield little. They are small, usually one or two hectares, so there are no economies of scale. And the whole of France harvested about ten tonnes in 2026, while Spain grows a thousand times more and sells its in-shell pistachios for €7 to €9 a kilo.
French growers are aiming for €10 to €15 a kilo wholesale, and sell direct for over €50. The most expensive Provence pistachios we came across were selling at €9.60 for 80 grams, or €120 a kilo.
How to get your money’s worth
- Compare the price of the kernel, not the bag. Divide the price per kilo of in-shell pistachios by 0.53 to compare it with shelled ones.
- Check the percentage of pistachio on spreads: it ranges from 5 to 60% depending on the brand. See the article on pistachio cream, paste and praline.
- Buy the current year’s harvest, in the autumn, and store it properly: a rancid pistachio is worth nothing, whatever it cost.
Frequently asked questions
Why do shelled pistachios cost twice as much?
Because the shell accounts for almost half the weight of a pistachio. A kilo of shelled pistachios takes nearly two kilos of in-shell pistachios, plus cracking and sorting. Measured by weight of kernel, the price is about the same.
Will pistachio prices keep going up?
Nobody can say. What we do know: the world crop forecast for the 2026–2027 season is a third smaller than the last one, and demand from chocolate makers and pastry chefs remains strong.
Why are Bronte pistachios so expensive?
They are harvested only every other year, by hand, on the slopes of Mount Etna, and make up just over 1% of world production. Shelled, they sell for around €60 a kilo in Italy.
What are the cheapest pistachios?
Salted roasted pistachios in the shell from the supermarket, usually grown in the United States: €21 to €24 a kilo in French supermarkets in November 2026.
Sources
- World pistachio harvest forecasts (INC data), Xataka, 18 June 2026, in Spanish.
- La pistache française sur toutes les lèvres, mais pas encore en bouche, Pleinchamp, 26 April 2024, in French.
- Il pistacchio di Bronte, Il Post, 27 December 2024, in Italian.
- Dubai chocolate craze results in global pistachio shortage, Baking Business, 25 April 2025.
- Why is there a pistachio nut shortage for Dubai chocolate?, FoodNavigator, 24 April 2025.
- Chocolat de Dubaï : le prix de la pistache victime de son succès, France 2, franceinfo, 25 April 2025, in French.
- Journée de la pistache : un marché mondial en expansion, Euronews, 1 March 2026, in French.
- Les pistachiers font leur retour dans le sud de la France, La Toque, 7 October 2026, in French.
- En Provence, le pari de la pistache, Vert, 22 September 2026, in French.
- Pistache de Provence, la nouvelle pépite des agriculteurs, Radio Camargue, October 2026, in French.
- Press release on the 2026 harvest, La Maison de la Pistache, August 2026, in French.
- El pistacho (1): requirements, soil, water and year-by-year yields, J. F. Couceiro, IRIAF El Chaparrillo, in Spanish.
- Pistachio Cultivars in California, C. Kallsen, UC Cooperative Extension.
