Since there are way smarter guys in the room than me, while we’re on the subject - can someone tell me why Macadamia nuts are so expensive? (They are by far the most expensive nut for sale in my grocery store).
The macadamia nut has very soft meat, yet one of the hardest shells of any nut. Shelling the macadamia without destroying the meat is difficult and usually requires special equipment. The macadamia tree also grows in a limited area.
If I recall correctly, I once read that only man-made machine and parrots can open macadamia nuts.
The leaves of one of the two varieties are also rather prickly - think of a holly leaf stretched longer and thinner - which may complicate the picking process.
Not to hijack, but since we’re on the topic of pistachios…
I have found that pistachios grown in the US (California) are larger and meatier than imported ones I’ve had from Turkey & Iran. Anyone know why this is?
I prefer the taste of the smaller ones, and have been on a constant quest for Iranian pistachios ever since I left Europe.
Because Honey Badger don’t work for free.
I thought cashews were expensive because they taste the best.
A great treat for me is chocolate ice cream with cashews on top. Satisfies two great cravings at once.
One would think that macadamias would be more expensive, perhaps the large volume of nuts they set offsets the cost of cracking them.
We had a volunteer macadamia tree, it would put out about 20lbs of nuts per year. The nuts were extremely difficult to crack, all conventional methods failed. The almost perfectly round shape, and slippery skin, (this after removing the tough fibrous outside) made most tools slip off. Using a hammer to open them required body armour, as they tended to shoot everywhere. A large vice would do the job though, as once the shell is cracked, it falls apart easily. We heard of pacific islanders putting them under boards and driving trucks over them, but we decided that sounded a bit iffy.:eek: Quite the invasive tree as well. And the leaves are VERY rough edged, with holly like points.
David Fairchild of the US Department of Agriculture went to Iran to scout out the best pistachio trees. He brought them to California and began cultivating the best. Although they were being harvested as early as 1929, it wasn’t until the late 50’s that pistachios were considered a commercial crop. American pistachios do not sit around on the ground waiting to be picked up as in the middle east. Thus, there is no reason to color them with a dye to cover the blemishes.
As for the expense. The raw price of the pistachios vary due to market forces. Please see:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/1698016/USDA-Pistachios
to see the harvested price for the years 1977 to 2006.
Almost all* pistachios in California are processed in a factory called “Nut City” near Stockton, California.
*“Almost all” is a typical weasel phrase to take into account a few trees in gardens.
IIRC from Guns, Germs, and Steel; nut trees in general are a recently-domesticated crop, in part because it takes so long for them to reach production. Almonds, for example, usually start producing in the third year. In addition to their harvesting and processing needs, some of the costs for nuts might have something to do with the long and risky start-up costs associated with their cultivation.
And lemme tell ya, those man-made parrots are expensive 
The reason pistachios are so expensive is because there is no competition from producers. A few years ago (5?) the pistachio growers banded together to form a “marketing alliance” that is identified on packages by the tag phrase “wonderful pistachios”. That alliance became a defacto oligopoly ( price control by a few) under the cloak of an advertising cooperative. How it works is that the producers pay into a “kitty” which then produces advertisements - notably the poor taste risque ads with b-list celebrities but designed to be pseudo-offensive so they’ll be discussed and remembered. If you’re a producer and you don’t join their group, they have ways of crowding you out of the market. If your in the group, pay your fees and all is well. I used to buy pistachios for less than half of what they cost since “wonderful pistachios” came into existence, and it wasn’t that long ago. I may be nuts but I haven’t eaten any since.
I’ve tasted a sort of jam made from the cashew fruits. The guy told me his Jamaican grandmother made it.
One other item about cashew trees. I had a volunteer tree in Thailand. What no one mentioned was that there was a HUGE colony of red ants that defended the tree. When I went to lop of a dead branch the ants came after me like some kind of science-fiction bug. stripping off all my clothes got me talked about a bit.:o
Regards
Testy
The US state of New Mexico now has a sizeable nut growing industry. Some of it is due to families that were in danger of losing land to taxes. By planting nut trees, they were able to declare business losses to lower tax liability.
Ordinary businesses must produce a taxable profit within a few years, but nut farms are allowed to operate at a loss for much longer (decades??), because nut trees take so long to mature and start producing.
This worked, and families kept their land. Eventually the trees did start producing, and now there is a nut industry in a very arid part of the country where other agriculture struggles.
Note: The above is local lore, and may well be complete nonsense, but it made sense to me. I heard it from a long time resident of Carizozo, NM which is now a good place to buy Pistachios.
Forgot something about pistachios. When I was in Saudi, I could buy perfect and beautiful bags of nuts from California for waaay cheaper than I can but them in the US. When I came back to the US I was appalled at the price of these things.
Regards
Testy
Yes, but they’re cheaper than the naturally-occurring machines, which is why they stick with the man-made ones. 
They’re expensive because consumers have shown they are willing to pay for them at that price.
I find this answer to be about as satisfying as “because”.
I can still get generic pistachios at the grocery store - which also sells Wonderful. After eating a few bags, I’d say Wonderful has better quality control.