On one end of the hierarchy of nuts, there’s the common yet versatile peanut. And on the other, there’s the outrageously priced pine nut that is called the caviar of nuts. But there’s nothing like a fresh pine nut. It’s creamy and flavorful. Called ‘salla geda’ in Nepali, these nuts are obtained from several varieties of pine trees. There are generally two main varieties, and both produce nuts that are ivory in color. The pine nuts found in Nepal are small and oblong in shape. Pine nuts aren’t as common as other nuts, but the demand keeps increasing in the United States and Europe. From 2008 to 2018, demand surged 236 percent in the US and 347 percent in Europe. Pine nuts only account for around one percent of worldwide nut consumption but they command a premium price in the market. They’re used in various industries including bakery, confectionery, beverages, and cosmetics, as well as being extracted for oil. The four most common pine nuts found in the culinary world are the Mexican pinyon (Pinus cembroides), the Colorado pinion (Pinus edulis), the Italian or Mediterranean stone pine (Pinus pinea), and Chinese nut pine (Pinus armandii).  But there are Siberian and Korean pines too. The Mediterranean or Italian (pignolia) stone pine nut is torpedo-shaped. It has a light, delicate flavor.

The high demand for pine nuts is also due to their impressive caloric value. A fistful of pine nuts has 188 Kcal. One kilogram of pine nuts costs around £44, compared to around £12 for almonds (according to a review of prices on Amazon at the time of writing this article). But as expensive as they come, they are delicious. I use pine nuts to make pesto, garnishes, couscous, in rice, and to make infused oil. My favorite recipe comprises toasted pine nuts in rosemary oil. Toasted pine nuts taste like homemade ghee and that makes me nostalgic.

Prices of the creamy, teardrop-shaped nuts can often cause sticker shock. But why are pine nuts so costly? First, they are labor-intensive to harvest. Pine nuts are one of the most expensive nuts available because of the time and effort required to grow and harvest them. Pine trees take a long time to mature and produce nuts, often taking anywhere from three to seven years before they start to bear cones. Additionally, the harvesting process is labor-intensive as well as the nuts are located inside the protective shells of the cones and must be extracted by hand. This makes the overall process of producing pine nuts more time-consuming and expensive than other types of nuts which contributes to their higher cost in the market. Pine nut trees take anywhere between 10 to 40 years to mature. Compare that to almond trees, which take two to four years to harvest. The good news is that in Nepal, pine nuts are found abundantly in the wild. Why do Nepalis go to the Gulf countries in droves when there’s a lot of money to be made in Nepal by foraging and collecting pine nuts from the wild? We can learn from our neighbor China which is one of the biggest exporters of pine nuts. China produces 8.1 megatons of pine nuts every year. It’s the biggest exporter too, accounting for approximately 64 percent of global exports, and is also the leading source of pine nuts for the U.S., EU, and the U.K. In some cases, the little nuts take quite a globe-trotting journey before they’re ready to be tossed into a batch of pesto. In fact, a significant portion of in-shell pine nuts from other top-producing countries is exported to China, processed, and then re-exported. Other Asian pine nut exporters include Afghanistan, Pakistan, North Korea, Mongolia, and Serbia, Russia. Nepal, with a little bit of foresight and planning, could produce amazing pine nuts and export them as well. It wouldn’t be profitable for another 25 years but the time to start is now. The author is a London-based Nepali R&D chef