Kerman Pistachios (California)

California's dominant cultivar — 21/25 & 24/28

Kerman is the cultivar that built the Californian pistachio industry and still accounts for the large majority of US acreage, despite sharing its name with the Iranian growing region it was originally selected from. Counts run 21/25 and 24/28 per ounce, sitting between the long Iranian varieties and Fandoghi in size, with a rounded-oval kernel. Specification follows US practice: moisture ≤ 6%, closed shells low, foreign matter ≤ 0.5%, and aflatoxin controlled to destination limits under a well-developed testing and traceability regime. Harvest falls in the northern autumn, counter-seasonal to nothing in particular but complementary in supply terms to a book otherwise dependent on a single origin.

The reason a buyer chooses Kerman over Iranian origin is frequently commercial rather than culinary. Documentation, payment and shipping are straightforward in a way Iranian-origin goods sometimes are not, depending on the buyer's jurisdiction and banking arrangements — sanctions regimes and correspondent-banking caution complicate Iranian transactions for many importers. Add a large, well-organised supply base and consistent grading, and Kerman becomes the practical default for buyers who need reliability and clean paperwork above all. Where Iranian origin still wins is on the extremes: Akbari's kernel length has no Californian equivalent, and Fandoghi generally prices below Kerman for volume snacking. Buy Kerman for mainstream retail, roasting and food manufacture where consistency and transactability matter more than either extreme. CBIL supplies against certification of size count, moisture, closed-shell percentage, aflatoxin and microbiology, on FOB, CFR and CIF terms.