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KUALA LUMPUR – After upending global supply chains that move critical fuels and fertilisers, the war in Iran has pushed prices of a popular nut grown in the country – pistachios – to an eight-year high.
Iran is the world’s second-largest producer of pistachios, which are eaten by themselves and are also a common ingredient in ice cream, chocolate and beverages. The conflict is crunching supplies in an already constrained market at a time when consumer appetite is surging.
The country’s pistachio trade was already complicated by sanctions and geopolitical frictions prior to the war, said Nick Moss, a nut market analyst at Expana Markets. A smaller-than-expected 2025 crop and communications blackouts in January during a government crackdown on civil unrest, which limited export coordination, further crimped supply.
The outbreak of war in late February made matters worse, “compounding an already constrained situation” and resulting in a shrinking pool of pistachios that’s increasingly difficult to deliver to global markets, Mr Moss said.
Consumption has surged globally since pistachio-filled “Dubai chocolate” bars went viral on TikTok and Instagram in late 2023, supercharging demand across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Major food brands like Häagen-Daz and Táche added the nut to ice cream and plant-based milk ranges, and Starbucks popularized pistachio-flavoured coffee. Prices climbed about 30 per cent in the two years from the end of 2023, according to Expana’s benchmark prices for US pistachios.
Demand for the nut has surged globally since pistachio-filled “Dubai chocolate” bars went viral on TikTok and Instagram in late 2023.
PHOTO: BH FILE
Iran accounts for about a fifth of global pistachio production and a third of exports, according to the US Department of Agriculture, and the US for around 40 per cent of output and about half of shipments. With the war in Iran squeezing supplies and choking trade, pistachio prices reached US$4.57 a pound in March, the highest since May 2018, Expana data show.
“The war has triggered shipping lines to cancel all fresh bookings starting March 2 for shipments to the Middle East,” said Gyana Ranjan Das, business head of edible nuts and pulses at Crown Point, a US-based company specialiszing in supplying pistachios to food processors. The conflict has also disrupted supply chains, including pistachio shipments to India, which imports about US$9 billion a year of edible nuts, he said.
While it’s too early to assess whether military attacks have damaged Iranian orchards, which are located mainly in the country’s northeast, logistics and shipping routes to trading hubs in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey have been disrupted, Mr Moss said.
This could lead to food makers either hiking prices, tweaking recipes, or switching to cheaper nuts.
It’s common for the snack makers to swap out one nut for another due to pricing decisions, although it may be tougher to replace pistachios entirely as a main ingredient, Mr Das said. “Looks like the ice creams in the summer months this year will miss pistachio flavor, or it will be milder.” BLOOMBERG
