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Atta Kenare / AFP/Getty Images file
A pistachio wholesaler shows his goods at his shop in Tehran in November 2006.
Iran has ordered a six-month ban on pistachio exports to try to control the price of the nut, which has doubled in the past month.
Pistachios are among Iran's top non-oil exports and widely consumed at home, bringing in an average of $1.5 billion a year and providing work for hundreds of thousands of people.
Iran was long the world's largest pistachio exporter, with over 200,000 tons a year, but was surpassed last year by the United States.
First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi told Iranian state TV on Friday that the ban is temporary and meant to help bring down the price of pistachios that doubled from about 250,000 Iranian rials per kilogram ($3.18 per pound).
Western sanctions over Iran's controversial nuclear program have slowed the country's economy and disrupted foreign trade.
The Associated Press
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Leave a Comment:
Sometimes you feel like a nut....sometimes you don't
Now that I know where they are coming from I won't miss eating them as much. Now don't get mad or pistachioed off but why did they dye them red???? I guess I will settle for peanuts. (You got to love the hot ones!) Now I'm hungry...I'll have to stop down at the Peanut Shoppe in downtown Akron.
"Pistachios are among Iran's top non-oil exports and widely consumed at home, bringing in an average of $1.5 billion a year and providing work for hundreds of thousands of people."
It is ban season for Iran.
Iranians should ban all things associated with west.
So they should start with banning nuclear energy and nuclear production.
They should consider banning oil as it was popularized by the west.
They should also ban all Sunni mosques, as Sunnis are inventing problems for Shiites in Syria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other Sunni majority nations.
What 'er they Fk'n NUTS?!
They need to balance everything. Banning Nuts will only keep the cost down in their country.
With all our technology in hydroponic growth, it won't be long until we don't need anyone else's foods anyway....
RealityCheck,
you can eat them, just make sure you are buying the ones from the US.
If banning pistachio exports brings the price down in Iran, perhaps we should consider banning oil exports and keeping our oil for our own consumption instead of selling it abroad for more money and then having to import it.
AG99, you radical, you. Are you trying to commit reason and screw up the whole US economy?
Back in the 1960's, Iran was the only country producing pistachio nuts. I used to be able to purchase them from a Greek deli, in Chicago's Greek Town. The extra large were delicious, and expensive. Then some Iranian stole and sold some small pistachio trees (seedlings). They ended up in California. Once the California trees started producing, they took over the market, because of lower prices. But the California pistachios don't have a tenth of the taste/flavor of the Iranian pistachios.
Hey Iran, how's that ban on oil exports working out for you? The same pathetic outcome will happen with your nut ban. I hope you have to drink your oil and survive on your nuts. Isn't theocracy great!
California Pistachio's are way better!
http://www.mercurynews.com/food-wine/ci_22473865/produce-picks-california-pistachios
http://www.pistachios.org/
Turkish pistacios are excellent !!
The Turks grow excellent produce. I had a fig in a market there once; it was like biting into a fig newton. And the clementines were fantastic.
Sorry, but I have tried Iranian, Turkish and Syrian pistachios. And, they taste much better than the Kalifornia stuff.
Why not just ban the import of any Iranian products into the US? What do they make that we REALLY need? I think there are enough cheap shirts coming from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, and I cannot think of one Iranian product that the rest of the world couldn't do without. It is common knowledge they don't manufacture cars, motorcycles, televisions, cameras, phones, cookware, edible food or toilet paper, so why let them send anything abroad?
What's sad is we don't manufacture most of those things either, except for food and Harley Davidsons.
Really this is the best they can do? The ban will cause the rest of the world to bow to their whims, or not.
It's not about the rest of the world. Read the article. It's about keeping pistachio prices down in Iran.
Iran's Biggest Problem is Iran, this may be a Long and Drawn Out Process of Allowing Them to Develop a Nuclear Weapon. Go Team OBama !!!!!
OMG!! OH anything but this and I cannot live without the nuts........what a braindead Iranian government.
Pistachio growers all over the US Rejoice! thanks @!$%#.
I am not surprised that one of Iran's major exports is nuts. They seem to have an abundance.
I agree that Iranians have many Isalmic nuts!
You'd think with all the nuts running the counrty over there, the supply would drive price down. There is no demand for them.
Smart move, Iran!! Because everybody knows those damn pistachios ruin everything.
Awww, I liked their nuts.
AWH, NUTS!
The Vice President...who was probably picking nuts last year, has no concept of economics, reducinge product availability only causes prices to go up outside Iran, causing sales to go down, and screws the local Iranian vendor where the glut will only cause his income to go down....what do you expect
Clearly no one in their right mind is running Iran. Taking something away from the market doesnt drive the price of said item down, it drive the price up. Ever heard of supply and demand? These guys are seriously retarded... its been a good month for them, the fake fighter jet, the photoshop image (albeit very poorly) of the jet flying, the Ayatollah stating no negotiations but president nutjob saying he's open to real talks... you cant make this @!$%# up.
customgpc... I guess you and the rest of the people have it completely wrong. it clearly says that they want to counter the price hike . they are not stopping the production of pistachios, they are banning it from export so it becomes more available at home. I don't know why are you people are barking at them. it has nothing to do with the u.s. actually they are still importing a lot of grain from u.s and keeping u.s farmers in buisiness. It is a wrong mindset to just bark at everything they do.
You are lecturing wrong people!
Go and lecture radical Muslims, if they listen to you.
good call by iran. keep all the nuts at home.
Banning nut exports? Oh that's just peanuts!!! or is it pistachios - Ha Ha. Glad to see Iran's economy in such constraints. Maybe they finally will come to their senses. Too bad about the Iranian general getting killed in Syria. Maybe the Iranian military will stay out of Syria & Lebanon too. They are not wanted for their interference.
They should focus on devaluing the dollar by trading their oil in some other currency. Wait!, they're already doing that.
Is this the real reason we are waging war against them?
http://english.pravda.ru/world/asia/14-05-2006/80261-iran_oil-0/
We need to do the same, but with refined oil products. Why produce more, when it is refined and exported?