-August 26,2020-
In a letter of support from America’s pistachio growers association the Fresno-based organization’s president Richard Matoian backed the expansion of a Tulare County nut grower being challenged by industry leader Wonderful Pistachios.
Wonderful lost the most recent round to stop construction of the ARO pistachio plant in Terra Bella this week as the Tulare County Board of Supervisors unanimously rejected Wonderful’s appeal.
Wonderful, owned by Stewart Resnick, has filed a lawsuit against the county hoping to convince a judge next week ( Sept 1) to put halt to the work on silo construction just as the harvest is beginning.Resnick has been a running battled with the Assemi family who now own the Terra Bella facility.
In their letter the American Pistachio Growers -a voluntary trade association representing over 850 member growers and member processors in the states of California, Arizona and New Mexico backed ARO’s expansion- now underway and approved by the county. Other growers penned letters of support this week as well.
Wonderful claims the county approved the expansion of the facility as a minor modification that the county says is common with ag projects noting the same language has been used to approve many Wonderful projects in Tulare County as well. Wonderful claims that the county has violated CEQA rules.
But the growers group points out the industry needs more processors in their letter.
“With the substantial increase in the number of acres planted to pistachios in California, and specifically in the San Joaquin Valley over the last 15 years, ever increasing hulling/drying and processing capacity is needed. As you may know, once pistachios are harvested, they must be hulled and dried within 24 hours, otherwise quality degradation occurs. So, the need for expansion of each and every existing pistachio processing facility on an on-going basis is imperative to keep up with the ever increasing crops that are being harvested. Without the expansion of the ARO Pistachios facility, this would put potentially 100’s of farmers at risk for the timely processing of their commodity. “
California produces 99 percent of the nation’s pistachios, and 97 percent of that the total bearing acres are located in the San Joaquin Valley. Pistachios are now the fifth largest commodity in California, and recently moved up to the third largest exported product from the State, in terms of value. Pistachio bearing acres have tripled from 2005 to 2020 (104,000 acres to 305,000 acres), and total production has risen from approximately 300 million pounds to nearly one billion pounds, projected for this year.
Tulare County is the third largest producer of pistachios in California. This increase in production IS the reason why each and every pistachio processing facility needs to undergo expansions of their facilities—to take care of and handle the ever increasing volumes.