Business
How California Pistachio Farmers Profit From Iran War and Viral Dubai Chocolate Trends
Land area devoted to pistachio growing
Twenty years ago, California farmers bet big on the pistachio. The little green nut was considered niche in the United States, but it was a staple in Iran and the surrounding region.
That gamble has paid off. Demand for pistachios is high as wellness trends draw people to high-fiber, protein-rich foods. They are also a key ingredient of Dubai chocolate, the incredibly popular chocolate bar filled with pistachio cream and kataifi, or shredded phyllo.
Pistachio orchards cover more than 600,000 acres in California, up from 100,000 in 2001. The San Joaquin Valley of California has near-perfect conditions for pistachios, a mix of hot, dry summers and cold, wet winters. The United States is now the world’s largest producer and exporter of pistachios. Iran is second.
Yet more than a month into the war with Iran, ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is at historically low levels, which has stymied exports from the region.
The potential removal of a major player in the market is good news for farmers in California, who are likely to get higher prices for their pistachios.
“With this war, it’s going to limit what Iran is able to do, able to ship, to customers in Europe and China,” said Adam Orandi, who farms 1,600 acres of pistachio orchards in the San Joaquin Valley. His father imported saplings from Iran in the 1970s.
For hundreds of years, Iran dominated the market. Pistachios first found their way to California in the 1930s when an American botanist, William E. Whitehouse, brought the nuts back from Iran. Yet only one variety flourished, which was named the “Kerman.”
Pistachio orchards expanded in the 1970s in California, but Iran continued to control the global market until the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979, when students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took dozens of Americans hostage.
Various trade embargoes against Iran were imposed and lifted in the following years, but a 241 percent tariff that was put in place in 1986 essentially ended Iran’s reign in the pistachio market in the United States.
Since 2011, the United States has consistently surpassed Iran as the largest exporter of pistachios. Iran has continued to lose market share.
The U.S. leads Iran in pistachio exports
“Production in Iran has been very erratic,” said David Magaña, who analyzes the fresh produce and tree nut industry at Rabobank. “Fifteen years ago, Iran accounted for 40 to 50 percent of global pistachio exports. More recently, Iran’s share has been more like 20 percent.”
The wholesale price of in-shell pistachios — what large manufacturers or retailers pay — has climbed 20 percent in the last 18 months to $4.57 a pound, according to Expana, a market data provider for the agriculture and food industries. In stores, consumers are paying significantly more.
The market is divided into two products: in-shell pistachios, which are sold whole and often roasted, and pistachio “kernels,” the seeds that are used in food production. The explosion of interest in pistachios as an ingredient in desserts and other foods has sharply increased demand for the kernels.
“For years, pistachios were a one-trick pony. They were a salty snack,” Mr. Orandi said. Just a few years ago, he added, he “couldn’t give the kernels away.”
In recent years, California growers have devoted more acreage to pistachios, and the state produced a record 1.6 billion pounds last year. American Pistachio Growers, a trade association, projected that California trees will bear more than two billion pounds of pistachios by 2031.
Pistachio imports have shot up worldwide
But there is one thing standing between the farmers and those projections: California’s water regulations, which people in the industry said may restrict the ability of some orchards to expand.
Pistachios, like other tree nuts, require large amounts of water. The amount needed by an acre of pistachio trees for an optimal crop yield depends on a number of factors, including soil salinity and the age of the trees.
On average, one acre of pistachios consumes over one million gallons of water in a year — slightly less than almonds and walnuts, according to estimates from University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. For areas in California prone to droughts, the pistachio boom could add stress to the state’s already thin water resources.
The vast majority of pistachios in California — in addition to other nuts and crops — grow in areas classified as of “extremely high” water stress as defined by the World Resources Institute, an environmental research firm. Compared to two decades ago, the amount of water used annually for pistachios in these areas is now tens of billions more gallons than before.
Difference in water use in pistachio-growing regions between 2007 and 2025
Still, there may be benefits to pistachios emerging as a major nut crop of the state, according to Josué Medellín-Azuara, a water resources researcher and professor of environmental engineering at University of California, Merced. They are more tolerant to drought and water salinity compared to walnuts and almonds, and they are consistently a high value crop, he said.
The profitability of these water-intensive crops creates a paradox for the farmers planting them, said Rich Pauloo, a hydrologist. “They consume more water, but you get more money per drop of water.”
President Trump on Thursday announced that grocery stories and air conditioning companies will be allowed to keep using high-polluting refrigerants for longer than they would have under a law he signed during his first administration.
“This was a tremendous burden, a tremendous cost,” said Trump, surrounded in the Oval Office by executives from supermarket chains including Kroger, Fairway, Neimann Foods and Piggly Wiggly. “It was making the equipment unaffordable, and the actual benefit was nothing.”
The move loosens rules meant to restrict hydroflourocarbons, a class of climate-damaging chemicals used in cooling equipment. HFCs are known as “super pollutants” because their impact on climate change can be tens of thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide during their shorter lifespans.
In the move Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency extends the deadline for companies to comply with a 2023 rule transitioning refrigerators and air conditioners off HFCs and onto new cooling technologies. Reducing these chemicals and moving to cleaner refrigerants has long been a bipartisan issue.
Trump is also proposing exemptions from a rule requiring leak repairs on large-scale refrigeration systems.
The administration framed the changes as part of its effort to bring down high grocery costs. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin said the actions will save $2.4 billion for Americans and safeguard 350,000 jobs.
“Americans who wanted to be able to fix their equipment were instead being required to buy far more costly new equipment and that just doesn’t make any sense,” said Zeldin.
David Doniger, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the move will not only harm the climate, but U.S. competitiveness in global refrigerant markets as well.
“The EPA is catering to a small group of straggling companies by derailing the shift away from these climate super-pollutants,” he said. “The industry at large supports the HFC phasedown and has already invested in making new refrigerants and equipment, currently installed in thousands of stores.”
Danielle Wright, executive director of the North American Sustainable Refrigeration Council, an environmental nonprofit, said any perceived near-term savings from the rollbacks will be outweighed by the future costs.
“Business owners are far more worried about the escalating cost of keeping aging, high‑global-warming-potential equipment running than they are about the cost of installing new, compliant systems,” she said.
Trump dismissed the climate concerns, saying his changes “are not going to have any impact on the environment.”
He said he wants to get rid of the technology transition rule entirely in the future.
Airbnb unveiled a new set of services for guests on Wednesday, adding car rentals, airport pickup and grocery delivery to its online marketplace that connects travelers with local hosts.
Customers can now get groceries delivered to their Airbnb through a partnership with Instacart and have a driver meet them at the airport with Airbnb’s Welcome Pickups. The app is also offering luggage storage in partnership with Bounce and will add in-app car rentals later this summer.
At the same time, Airbnb is ramping up its use of AI by adding AI-powered review summaries and lodging comparisons, the company said.
The company has been expanding beyond lodging since last year, when it introduced Airbnb Experiences and Services, giving guests the option to book private tours and chef-cooked meals through the app.
In an earnings call earlier this month, the company’s chief executive, Brian Chesky, said the company is at “the very, very beginning of how AI is going to change how we all do our jobs.”
The changes are coming in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will take place in 16 cities across the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The company said its offering exclusive World Cup experiences, such as watch parties and access to stadiums.
“In terms of what we’ve seen in cumulative bookings heading into the event, the World Cup is slated to be the largest event in Airbnb’s history,” said the company’s chief financial officer, Ellie Mertz, on the earnings call.
Airbnb gained popularity for offering travelers unique and homey stays on other people’s property, but it added boutique hotel bookings to its platform late last year. The move had some customers questioning if the app was straying too far from its original purpose.
In its announcement this week, the company said it is partnering with more independent hotels in 20 top destinations, including New York, London and Singapore. On the earnings call, Chesky said hotels on Airbnb could become a multibillion-dollar revenue business.
The San Francisco-based company was founded in 2007 and gave homeowners the opportunity to earn money by renting out their space to travelers seeking something different from a hotel. Airbnb bookings can range from private bedrooms in a shared home to luxury mansions and yachts.
The company’s revenue grew 18% year over year to $2.7 billion in the first quarter, while net income increased slightly to $160 million. Airbnb’s new services and offerings could transform it from a home-sharing platform to a holistic travel marketplace, analysts said.
Shares of the company have increased by 14% over the past six months and fell by less than 1% on Thursday.
Elon Musk wants to take investors on a ride to the moon — and beyond.
His pioneering rocket company SpaceX filed Wednesday for what’s expected to be the largest initial public offering in history, potentially raising at least $75 billion and valuing the company at as much as $2 trillion.
The registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an expected public offering next month explicitly sets aside stocks for retail investors, though the exact number will be spelled out in a later filing, as will the offering price and company valuation.
Interest in the stock offering is expected to be high despite the billionaire’s controversial politics, including his involvement last year with the Department of Government Efficiency, the makeshift cost-cutting effort that resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands of government jobs.
“Potential investors are probably just as polarized as the electorate is too, given his dabbling in politics,” said Carol Schleif, chief market strategist for BMO Private Wealth. “But it’s not just the SpaceX IPO per se, it’s a bigger, broader excitement among investors for space investment in general.”
Investor interest was piqued by the Artemis II moon mission this year that SpaceX did not participate in, she said. However, the company is expected to play a larger role in future missions that take astronauts to the moon..
Ultimately, Musk, 54, wants to establish a colony on Mars but those plans have been set on the back burner, with NASA now focusing on moon missions.
Musk will remain the company’s chief executive and chairman. Under a dual-class stock structure as a holder of special Class B shares he will be able to control the election of directors, the filing says.
The IPO is expected to be at least twice as large as the current record holder: Saudi Aramco, the state-controlled national oil and gas company of Saudi Arabia, which raised nearly $30 billion in 2019.
Nearly two dozen banks will be underwriting the IPO and offering shares to investors, including Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup.
Founded in 2002 in El Segundo, SpaceX has revolutionized the aerospace industry by developing the reusable Falcon 9 rocket that has radically lowered launch costs.
The company moved its headquarters from Hawthorne to Texas in 2024. However, SpaceX retains large operations in the South Bay city and blasts off regularly from Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara County.
Scores of former SpaceX employees have launched startups in Southern California, including rocket company Relativity Space, hypersonic missile startup Castelion and satellite manufacturer Apex Space.
Since developing its reusable rocket technology, SpaceX has established its Starlink network as the leading satellite-based broadband internet service. It also is moving into satellite-based cellular service and this year merged with Musk’s xAi artificial intelligence company that also included his X social network.
Marco Cáceres, an aerospace analyst at Teal Group, said that the advantage of going public for SpaceX lies in the IPO’s ability to raise a large amount of capital quickly to complete development of its Starship rocket.
“It is going to dominate the market even more than the Falcon 9 is dominating the market now,” he said. “That’s going to be ultimately what’s going to drive their business for the next 10 years.”
The 12th test launch of Starship is set for Friday from the company’s south Texas launch facility. The rocket is the third version of craft, standing more than 400 feet tall and with about three times the payload of the second version.
The regulatory filing claims that the market for its rocket, internet and mobile telephone businesses could be as large as $28.5 trillion.
SpaceX also plans to launch thousands of orbiting data centers powered by the sun that would perform AI calculations.
With the company making massive capital investments, it recorded a $4.28-billion loss in the first quarter. Last year, it recorded $18.7 billion in revenue and lost $4.94 billion, according to the filing.
The public offering is expected to hit the market next month after a “road show,” during which SpaceX will seek to drum up interest from institutional and retail investors.
It will arrive after a fairly quiet year for IPOs that was brightened last week when Cerebras Systems, a Sunnyvale company that makes semiconductors for AI supercomputers, went public.
Shares at Cerebras were offered at $185 and jumped 68% on its opening day. They closed Wednesday at $290.69.
Matt Kennedy, a senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, said the SpaceX offering would dwarf that of Cerebras, as it is expected to raise more than every IPO combined in the last two years.
“A win here or a loss could really impact the IPO market,” he said. “The sheer size of this deal is going to make or lose fortunes.”
Among the oddest disclosures of the IPO is a decision by the company’s board in January to grant Musk 1 billion Class B shares if the company reaches a certain market capitalization and establishes a “permanent human colony on Mars with at least one million inhabitants.”
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