Israel to finally stop buying Pistachios from Iran and import from only ally the USA?

It's about fricken time.



Diplomacy, high-level lobbying boost U.S. pistachio sales to Israel

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"This has been for us an issue that's been very frustrating, to say the least," Richard Matoian, executive director of the Fresno, Calif.-based Western Pistachio Association, said Friday.

The historic problem, U.S. growers say, has been that low-cost Iranian pistachios were imported into Israel via Turkey. That stings, because Israel potentially is a lucrative market. The county leads the world in per-capita pistachio consumption.

In theory, Israel maintains a trade embargo on Iran. In practice, U.S. growers say, they have repeatedly found evidence of Iranian pistachios finding their way into Israel. Since 1997, when then-Secretary of State Madeline Albright weighed in, U.S. officials have periodically pressed Israel to stop the Iranian shipments.

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"We appreciate the warm relations we have with the United States," Yakov Poles, agricultural attache for the Israeli Embassy, said. "Since this issue was raised by pistachio growers in California, we took it very seriously."

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Err.. did you know you can order Pistachio bags at amazon?!