Throughout the 1960s, pistachio plantings expanded throughout California. By the late 1970s, California's Central Valley had become a center for commercial production of pistachios. Today, California is the second largest producer of pistachios worldwide, boasting over 100,000 acres of pistachio orchards and producing an average of over 200 million pounds of pistachios a year.
	Although most pistachios shells come in the creamy beige variety, a few California processors still dye a small percentage of their shells red to satisfy certain consumer groups. Some trace this tradition to a Syrian importer named Zaloom who first dyed his pistachios red to attract attention from passersby and to set them apart from his competition. Others claim that red dye was used to mask imperfections or to imitate the pinkish color of Turkish pistachios – a look that results from brining the nuts with their hulls still on.
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