News Archive
To all the PGAI Members and Growers
May you have a Very Merry Christmas and a Safe, Prosperous and Happy New Year. 
Keep forgetting your anniversary? Eat pistachios and peanuts to improve memory.
From the Economic Times, November 16th 2017
LOS ANGELES: Daily consumption of nuts such as pistachios, peanuts and walnuts may improve cognition, healing, learning, memory and other key brain functions, a study claims.
Researchers at Loma Linda University in the US found that some nuts stimulated several brain frequencies more than others.
Pistachios, for instance, produced the greatest gamma wave response, which is critical for enhancing cognitive processing, information retention, learning, perception and rapid
Read more of this article at the Economic Times/India Times website: Click Here
All Current PGAI Permits for Pistachio Crops are now online.
Click on https://www.pgai.com.au/chemical-permits and use your Member login. Permits are all in PDF format and available for download.
All the videos from the 2017 PGAI Symposium and PIT Group are online.
Once again thanks to the efforts of James Simpfendorfer, the 2017 Symposium, PIT Group and Field Sessions have been filmed, edited and made available to PGAI to be put on the website. So, if you missed the day, or would like to review one or all of the talks or field sessions, click on the link below.
Log in via Members Section – Industry Videos. Click on this link to go directly to the log in page: Industry Videos Log In
If you want any of the talks in PDF form, all the presentations, photographs and speaker presentation videos from the day are also online in the PIT Group page (Log In required) of the Members Section: PIT Groups Log In
The PGAI Pistachio Newsletter, P.I. News, for October is available.
Click on the link to read – Pistachio newsletter oct17
Dr Jianlu Zhang recently celebrated his 14th Anniversary as the Research Field Officer for the Pistachio Growers’ Association.
Dr Zhang is also the reigning Robinvale Division 1 Table Tennis Champion. Feel free to contact Jianlu to congratulate him on both achievements – pgai@iinet.net.au
Chris Joyce speaks to Ed Phillips from Better Living about Australian Pistachios.
All PIT Group and Spring Symposia presentations and photos from 2013 on-wards are now online.
All the presentations (PDF) and photographs, and a few videos are now online in the PIT Group page of the Members Section: https://www.pgai.com.au/pit-groups
Italy has scooped the ‘world’s best gelato’ prize after a three-year worldwide contest. And it’s Pistachio flavoured. Courtesy of Lonely Planet Travel News (link below).
As if we needed any more excuses to go to Italy, it has now been voted home of the world’s best gelato. The finale of a three-year long mission to choose a winner from over 1800 gelato-makers worldwide took place in the coastal Italian city of Rimini earlier this week, with Alessandro Crispini of Gelateria Crispini in the Umbrian town of Spoleto taking the top prize.
The Gelato World Tour is co-ordinated by the Carpigiani Gelato University, and it has been travelling the world in its quest to track down the tastiest gelatos from different countries. There were 36 finalists representing 19 countries in Rimini this weekend, and they undertook a number of challenges. The three-day event drew 50,000 people, all keen to sample the deliciousness on offer and enjoy demonstrations and workshops on subjects like the art of making handmade gelato, the history of gelato, and how to run a gelato business.
In the end, the pistachio gelato named “Pistacchio” by Alessandro Crispini of Gelateria Crispini was the winner. It was made from three slow-toasted Sicilian pistachio varieties, two from Bronte and one from Agrigento, sugar, Madagascar vanilla beans, cream, caramelised sugar and Cervia salt.
It’s the best of both worlds.
Read more on the Gelato Grand Tour courtesy of the Lonely Planet Website – here
PGAI Chill Hour Newsletter No 3 16th August 2017
Read more here – PGA Chill hour Newsletter No 3 16th August 2017
Go Just Nuts: Success has come from unconventional ideas.
ERIC Wright arrived at the auction of a six-hectare farm in the Mallee town of Nangiloc, curious to see who would buy it. When there were no bids, the auctioneer approached Eric to gauge his interest. “I went to the farm to have a look and I ended up buying it,” Eric says, laughing.
THREE hectares of pistachio trees produce up to 20 “wet” tonnes of nuts — those straight off the trees, still moist with skins intact, before they have gone through the drying process. This equates to about five “dry” tonnes in the shell.
Harvest runs for six weeks from the end of February and Eric has enough stock to last through much of the year, selling raw and salted nuts in 200g and 500g bags.
About three tonnes is sold retail — mainly through five farmers’ markets, including a weekly six-hour one-way trip to Melbourne. He also sells in shops locally and in Melbourne, as well as through Farmhouse Direct. The rest is sold in bulk to Nut Producers Australia, the same business that processes Eric’s pistachios.
Read the full article: link to original article:
Latest Pistachio Newsletter – August 2017 attached below. Click on the link.
Pistachio newsletter August 2017
Pistachio Information and Technology Group Meeting – Thursday 3rd August 2017 – 3pm sharp.
PISTACHIO SPRAY TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATION.
Geoff Furness, Research Scientist, Consultant, Spray Application Technology
Geoff Furness is a scientist with 44 years’ experience with research interests in entomology, especially in citrus and viticulture, (IPM, ecology, and control) and spray application technology (air assisted sprayer design and evaluation in both horticulture and field crops).
Geoff Retired from a 42 year career as a senior research scientist with the South Australian Research and Development Institute in Primary Industries and Resources, SA in 2010. He now works part time as a consulting scientist.
Attached: Preliminary reading, a paper by Geoff on Simple Accurate Tree Sprayer calibration.NutgrowerPaper
Robinvale: Thursday 3rd of August, 3:00pm sharp
Address: CMV Farms Robinvale: 3067 Murray Valley Hwy, Bannerton VIC 3549
There will be a spray demonstration on a CMV Farms Pistachio block. This will be followed by BBQ dinner and then once dark, an inspection by black light of the sprayed trees.
PLEASE RSVP to Craig or Trevor by Friday 28th July
There will be a sausage sizzle BBQ dinner provided after the presentations, before the night time spray assessment. For more information please ring Craig Feutrill on 0437 307 590
Pistachio Information and Technology Group Meeting – Monday 5th June 2017 – 11am sharp.
Bob Beede, Video Conference from California.
Farm Advisor Emeritus: Bob Beede has lived and worked in the San Joaquin Valley of California his whole career. He earned BS and MS degrees focusing on Plant Science, Agrarian Studies, and Postharvest Physiology at the University of California (UC) at Davis. For 35 years Bob worked as a UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor working out of Kings County.
There will also be industry updates:
- 2017 Season Report – Chris Joyce
- Insect and Fungal programs – Chris Joyce
- Winter Oil Trials – Dr Jianlu Zhang
- Winter Chill – early predictions – Dr Jianlu Zhang.
Where: AgVic Mildura Centre, DEDJTR, Corner Eleventh St and Koorlong Ave, Irymple VIC 3498
There will be a sausage sizzle provided after the video conference. For more information please ring Craig Feutrill on 0437 307 590
Pistachio growers say (2016) harvest is going nuts from good weather and better farming practice.
From Victorian ABC Country Hour courtesy of Emma Brown
Chris Joyce discussing harvesting and the new season with Emma Brown.
It is a bumper year for pistachios with some growers reporting the best “off-year” crop they have ever seen.
The majority of the nation’s pistachio crop is grown along the Murray River in southern New South Wales, north-western Victoria, and South Australia.
Grower and processor Chris Joyce from Kyalite said the quality of this year’s harvest was exceptional.
“Pistachios are an alternate-bearing crop, they have a very big crop and then they have a smaller crop, this year should have been one of the lower crops,” he said.
“This is without question the best off crop we have ever seen; the quality of this year’s crop is absolutely extraordinary.
“We have low percentages of closed shell nuts and low percentages of damaged nuts on the tree and the yields are well above what we would have ever expected to achieve in an off crop, so this is a good year.”
Industry could grow to meet domestic demand
The low staining and high yields should mean better returns for growers who are paid on quality and quantity.
Chris Joyce said he was expanding his plantings and was aware of other producers doing the same.
He said the industry was growing gradually and there was no risk of domestic oversupply.
“I have seen the crop go from being a very specific specialty crop with a total crop of a few hundred tonnes being consumed in Australia,” he said.
“Now it’s a mainstream product that you can now buy in the major supermarkets.
“Currently Australia is only growing about half of what we consume so we think that very simply we could double production and continue to satisfy the Australian market.”
The finished product, packaged pistachios wait to be trucked to supermarkets. Photo courtesy of ABC Emma Brown.