Few economic success stories have grown as quickly and as strongly as that of what is, without a doubt, the fashionable nut: the pistachio. This dried fruit has become the protagonist of an unprecedented nutritional phenomenon, becoming the star of the toppings and ally of the most diverse desserts that go viral on Instagram.
However, thanks to this unexpected popularity, pistachio cultivation is generating thousands of jobs and revitalizing regions of the country that for years had seen their population slowly decline.
The pistachio is unleashed. According to the report ‘Present and future of pistachio cultivation and its processing. From a business perspective’ prepared for Agróptimum, the pistachio industry has registered spectacular growth. Only in the last decade its expansion exceeds 3,000%, consolidating itself as one of the great agricultural surprises of recent years in Spain.
The rise of this crop not only responds to international demand, but also to the push of new local producers and cooperatives who, given their adaptation to climatic conditions and their high profitability, have discovered a product that allows them to maintain agricultural activity.
An employment engine. According to the data in the report, currently the pistachio production chain is generating more than 200,000 jobs throughout the country, including both direct and indirect jobs. This figure includes positions ranging from cultivation and field care tasks to jobs in genetic research, data programming for precision agriculture, and distribution and export tasks.
From the consulting firm Agróptimum, they estimate that this wave will continue to grow, and about 100,000 additional jobs will be created in the next five years, especially in those areas related to new plantations and in the process of modernization of the sector.
Pistachio is not the only thing that takes root. Data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food show that 61% of the irrigated pistachio area registered in 2024 was newly planted, along with 70% of the dryland area that was also beginning its cultivation activity.
Most of these new pistachio plantations are being developed in areas recognized for their risk of depopulation, such as Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Extremadura or Andalusia. The arrival of the pistachio to these regions has meant an injection of employment that contributes to anchoring the young population in these territories and makes it possible to attract new neighbors with new business projects linked to the cultivation of this nut.
Castilla-La Mancha as a pistachio superpower. The most striking growth of this type of crop has occurred in Castilla-La Mancha, where around 80% of the national area of cultivated land dedicated to pistachio is concentrated, achieving a harvest of more than 5,600 tons in 2025. 75% of the national total of 7,500 tons.
In this community, the planted area already exceeds 64,000 hectares in its different types of dryland and irrigated land, with a significant expansion year after year and a growing focus on organic production, which represents approximately 36% of all pistachios cultivated.
An industry with global projection. According to what was published by The EconomistSpain is consolidating itself as a European producer in the production of pistachio. At the moment, the Spanish pistachio market represents around 0.7% of world production, and Spain imports pistachios from the US and Iran.
However, these harvests occur in a context in which the plantations are still young and their productivity is limited. The sector estimates that in a few years these plantations will reach cruising speed and the volume of a very good quality product that will have EU countries as its main destinations will multiply.
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Image | Unsplash (Alexa Soh, Agróptium)
