Australia’s emerging pistachio industry has taken a quantum leap at Bannerton, 8km south of Robinvale, this week with the official unveiling of the Australian Pioneer Pistachio Company’s state-of-art pistachio hulling facility.

This is the company’s second purpose-built processing operation and marks the astonishing growth of the industry since the release of the Australian bred variety Sirora.

APPC’s Chris Joyce said it is a very different industry today, and one which has come a long way from the first hulling and grading plant opened at Robinvale in 1992. 

Mr Joyce said eight years after the first plantings of Sirora, a pistachio variety created by the CSIRO to meet Australian conditions, that original plant processed “a very humble seven tonnes from just two growers”.

He said the two plants combined – HB1 and HB 2 – have a combined capacity of 6600 tonnes.

“Since those early days, the industry has continued to thrive, with growers collectively working together to overcome initial challenges in the orchard to produce world class quality and yields,” Mr Joyce said.

“The struggles and success of these early growers has led to a large increase in the number of pistachio growers and plantings across the industry, resulting in outgrowing the capacity of the original hulling plant,” he explained.

“The construction of the new plant started in 2023, and we are delighted it had been completed just in time for the 2024 harvest.”

To hull and process the 2024 crop, both plants were used concurrently, processing the industry’s largest crop to date with 4500 tonnes.

Mr Joyce said while the establishment investment in the new greenfield and infrastructure has been sizable, the industry is projected to increase to 25,000 tonnes by 2035, making the investment a necessity.

He said the new plant has been built in modular format, with Stage 2 scheduled for commissioning in 2026, and Stage 3 in 2028, to expand in parallel with forecast increasing crop yields to the anticipated 10,000 tonnes by 2030.

With more than 100 people in attendance, the recently completed expansion was officially opened on Thursday, where Mr Joyce was joined by David Crawford and Ben Robinson, who have also played a vital role establishing the industry in Australia for growers or horticultural experts.

And APPC is also on the lookout for more workers to help with its ongoing expansion.

“APPC is proud to be Australia’s largest, privately owned processor of pistachios, and all our shareholders are also pistachio growers,” Mr Joyce said.

“As a pioneer of producing and marketing locally grown Australian pistachios, we are focused on investing in the business through innovation and technology developments,” he said.

“Since the early 1980s, APPC has pioneered the growing, production and marketing of Australian pistachios.

“We are committed to the long-term supply of Australian pistachios and have actively pursued the best production practices from around the world and supply an excellent product at a competitive price.

“The Riverland and Sunraysia regions of Australia are ideally suited for pistachio growing, with their hot summers and consistently dry autumn period, which is perfect for the March harvest. The access to the Murray for irrigation also enhances the production potential of the region.

“Our pistachio operation is an integrated process including hulling, shelling, drying, cleaning, grading, needle-picking, sorting, sizing, roasting and salting and packing.”