‘Green gold’: Spanish farmers ditch olives for pistachios in bid to survive

‘Even with only 10 or 15 hectares of pistachios you can make a decent living’: pistachios ripening. Photograph: jessicahyde/Getty

They’re calling it green gold, the cash crop that could rescue one of Spain’s poorest regions from decline and depopulation as farmers plough up wheatfields and vineyards and replant them with pistachios.

With farmers earning between 65 and 85 cents for each kilo of olives they produce, and around 65 cents for grapes, pistachios, which fetch €6-8 a kilo, are in a different league.