France: French pistachio, on everyone's lips, but not yet in the mouth

“A pistachio orchard, I know what it costs but I am unable to say what it will bring you.” This is what Benoit Dufaÿ declares, project manager at France Pistache, a producers' union which holds a show at medFEL in Perpignan (Pyrénées-Orientales). This department, which for two years has been in a state of semi-aridity, is potentially a land of choice for nuts, which like heat and which can be cultivated in dry conditions. “Of the 80,000ha recorded in Spain, 60% are managed dry,” continues the specialist. In France, traces of the pistachio tree date back to the beginning of the 20th century in Provence and it is in this region that the revival took place with the creation, in 2018, of the Pistache en Provence association, then of the France producers' union Pistachio in 2021. In 2024, the French orchard totals 450ha, mainly located in Vaucluse and the Alpes de Haute-Provence and incidentally the neighboring departments. Aude and the Pyrénées-Orientales constitute a second source of ...