Now is the New Year goods procurement season, yesterday I went to the market to buy New Year goods, saw that the price of pistachios is more than 50 a catty, and there are quite a lot of people who buy. This price is much higher than some other nut products such as melon seeds, peanuts, walnuts, etc.
Pistachios are really more expensive year by year, and they have long been in the position of high-end New Year goods, and after eating pistachios for so many years, the price has not been cheap.
At that time, I wondered in my heart, why don't farmers grow pistachios on a large scale with such a price and market? For this reason, I have consulted the relevant information, and now let's talk about this topic with friends.
Meet pistachios
Pistachios, also known as Azuki luna, are trees in the family Roseaceae, usually 5-7 meters tall. It is native to Iran and Turkey and is cultivated in Turkey, Iraq, and the Americas.
Pistachios are rich in vitamins, minerals and antioxidant elements, have the characteristics of low fat, low energy and high fiber, have medicinal and health effects, and are also the world's most popular health snack food. The fruit can be used for oil, stir-frying, medicinal and other purposes, and is a world-recognized cash crop.
First, the growth environment is harsh
Pistachios grow in arid areas, at altitudes of 600 to 1200 meters, in the mountains of Yangpo, and in places with deep calcareous soils.
Fruit trees are not tolerant of moisture, and must be well drained, the hanging period is July-September, during the hanging period, the need for water is greater, if the lack of water is serious, it will lead to reduced yield or no harvest.
Pistachios, a peculiar soil and climate and environmental demand, are only available in the northwest of the mainland, and can be grown in a small number of places such as Kashgar, Gansu and Xinjiang.
Second, the growth cycle is long
It takes 6-7 years for pistachios to hang fruit, and more than 10 years for fruit. Although there are now methods of grafting and cuttings, which can shorten the time of fruiting to 3 to 4 years, at present, no suitable grafted mother plant has been found in China.
Planting pistachios requires a long time to invest in order to have output, and before the fruit, you also need a variety of fertilizers, management costs, so the cost of planting it is also unaffordable for ordinary farmers, and at present, it is basically corporate capital to dare to invest.
Third, the output is low
Unimproved breeding pistachio trees have lower yields, usually an adult pistachio tree, the annual yield is about 150 kg, and it is still fresh fruit with skin, and we eat its kernels, so a tree can only produce about 50 kg of pits.
And not all fruit pits can open with nuts, it will also have dead fruits, no opening phenomenon. Growers usually don't have the equipment to make their own and need to sell the fruit to manufacturers for processing before they can become the pistachios we eat.
The manufacturer's purchase price is generally about 30 yuan a pound, so calculated, the total profit of a fruit tree is about 2,000 yuan.
Excluding management costs, water conservancy, fertilizer, pesticides and other expenses, this profit is actually not high, and this is still a profit ten years later, if you grow other cash crops, such as Chinese medicinal materials, it is obviously more cost-effective.
Pistachios are also male and female, which means that farmers need to mix the two varieties when planting. At the same time, there is also the phenomenon of results in alternate years, which leads to the situation of one year of fruit, and no result of one year. In this way, with such a low yield and a long cycle, ordinary farmers dare not easily try large-scale planting.
Fourth, the variety is not good
Pistachios have not formed a systematic planting technology in the mainland, nor have pistachio varieties with strong adaptability, high shelling rate and large kernels been selected.
At present, some international high-quality varieties, but also basically some foreign varieties, suitable for pistachio grafted rootstock and fragrant wood yellow wood mother beads, are not easy to cultivate in the mainland, resulting in the lack of cultivation of our varieties, at a disadvantage.
5. The disease is serious
Because pistachios are exotic specialities, our climatic conditions do not correspond to the place of origin, resulting in serious pests and diseases.
Its main pests and diseases are leaf spot and weeviliasis. In severe cases, early leaf fall, young shoots are gnawed, and inflorescences are disrupted, affecting the development of pistachio fruits, reducing yield or losing harvest. Therefore, a lot of pesticides are used when growing pistachios, resulting in further higher costs.
Sixth, the cost of deep processing is not low
Pistachio is a special fruit, it is not picked and edible, it needs to be deeply processed before it can be marketed, only processed dried fruits are delicious, and fresh fruits are not edible at all and have no taste.
We take 100 kilograms of fresh pistachios as an example, send them to the processing plant, screen out dead fruits, closed fruits, and then dry, and finally only process about 30 kilograms of qualified fruits, and the deep processing process is complicated, and the cost is not low.
Conclusion: Although the market price of pistachios is high, it does not mean that the profit is high. At present, it is not suitable for ordinary farmers to grow in large quantities. If high-quality varieties are developed, they may become the fruits of farmers' enrichment, and then large-scale planting can be promoted.