Angela Nguyen

Downtown and Central Bakersfield Neighborhood Reporter

Hot summers are nothing new to Kern County, but early extreme heat waves this year are taking a serious toll on pistachio crops, shrinking harvests across the region.

Fewer blooms on trees can mean a sharper drop in fruit production, leaving growers with fewer pistachios to harvest.

LaBorde's business manager Jonathan Romero says pistachio trees naturally follow a cycle of higher-yield years followed by lower-yield years. Growers are currently facing one of those lower-production seasons, with extreme heat adding even more pressure.

"Not only are we faced with a low crop yield this year, but we're also being affected by inflation."

Romero says higher market prices help even out the disparity for farmers when numbers rise on shelves. He says he is worried about how this is affecting smaller-scale pistachio farmers who rely solely on a handful of nut varieties.

"Pistachios might be a bit more expensive this year, but you're helping the growers - the local growers, family farms; I think that's what they should all take into consideration," Romero said.

Dr. Richard Gearhart, a professor of economics at California State University, says that when a product becomes rare, local and overseas shoppers must compete to buy it, which drives up the price for everyone domestically and internationally.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, the estimated projected yield for California's total pistachio harvest sits at around 600 to 900 million pounds this year, compared to last year's harvest of 1.63 billion pounds.

This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.

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