<p></p><p>Last season was a catastrophe for pistachio growers, which resulted in a loss of over 200 million pounds of pistachios. Thankfully, local farmers say this season is much better.“This year we will have a record crop,” said Richard Matoian, the executive director of American Pistachio Growers, adding that it will be larger than the 2012 crop.Matoian said 555 million pounds of pistachios were produced nationwide in 2012 and so far he expects California, Arizona, and New Mexico, the three states that produce pistachios in the U.S., to produce over 800 million pounds, which is huge considering last year only 275 million pounds were produced.“We had a disaster of a crop last year, and growers in your area [California] and elsewhere just had horrible crops,” said Matoian, who noted that California produces 99 percent of the nation’s pistachios. “But this year is great because we had good chill hours during the dormant season during the winter, plus we had adequate water.” <br></p> <p>Matoian said with the cost and availability of water and with all the regulations that are in place regarding worker’s health and safety, and pesticide use, it has become increasingly more difficult and costly to farm, which is why he believes more farmers are turning to more high-value crops that require less labor, such as pistachios, almonds and walnuts.“Pistachios and almonds and walnuts have become favorites for people to plant,” Matoian said. “The returns have been relatively good in costs, particularly on the labor side and we have seen almonds and walnuts and pistachios become the crop of choice due to those factors." <br></p> <p><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.recorderonline.com/features/pistachio-industry-rebounds-after-last-season-s-bad-harvest/article_2f504cd4-90ff-11e6-a94e-f37caa2a8a35.html">Click here to read more at recorderonline.com.</a></p><p></p>