Hidden away in Tehran’s famous Grand Bazaar, Iran’s oldest pistachio wholesaler is quietly preparing a small revolution – he will hand over his business to his youngest daughter, in a male-dominated trade.
Abbas Emami, 88, started working for his own father at the age of 15. More than seven decades later, the slogan “Over a century of experience” is emblazoned on the pistachio bags in the family shop.
He doesn’t know exactly when his family first got into the business.
But “my dad worked at my maternal grandfather’s nut store before starting his own business,” Emami recalls.
“I helped my father during the day and studied at night,” he said. “It took me a decade to learn the secrets of the craft.”
Emami is now in the process of passing on that expertise to his 50-year-old daughter, Marjan, who will also take over his company, Shams Roasted Nuts.
The pistachios are generally grown in the provinces of Kerman and Semnan.
Every two or three months, agents working on behalf of the growers come and place orders.
Competitors corroborate the fact that Emami – who took over the business from his father in 1975 – is the city’s oldest pistachio wholesaler.
“We buy five varieties of pistachios,” Emami said. “They differ in appearance, taste, size, quality and therefore in price.”
“The best-tasting variety, in my opinion, is the Ahmad-Aghaei, which sells for 495,000 tomans (US$16) per kilogram,” he said.
Iran’s last pistachio harvest in October yielded 280,000 tons, half of which was consumed domestically and the rest exported to around 75 countries.
Exports brought in the equivalent of $900 million, making the industry a significant contributor to Iran’s economy.
– tricks of the trade –
Emami is reluctant to reveal too much about the know-how he’s passing on to Marjan.
“It’s important to shop at the right moment,” he said, adding that proper cooling is also important.
Marjan, who initially took over responsibilities in her father’s shop due to concerns about his vulnerability to the coronavirus, was a little more accommodating.
“It’s not easy to get the product at the right price,” she said. “It is also crucial to monitor processing, hygiene and storage.”
Iran is one of the top three consumers of pistachios in the world, after Turkey and China, and demand is particularly high during Nowruz, the Persian New Year celebrations.
“With the spread of the coronavirus, my father couldn’t come to the store,” Marjan said. “So I filled in for him during Nowruz with my own two daughters, started as a cashier and then stayed.”
Roasting the nuts is a crucial part of the process.
A few streets away from Emami’s shop, in the capital’s Ahangaran district, 80-kilo sacks of raw pistachios are piled high.
“Once the drum has been cleaned with coarse salt, we roast the pistachios before mixing them in a blender with salt water or saffron before drying them,” said Majid Ebrahimi, 31, who roasts two tons a day.
According to Emami, the pistachio trade has evolved significantly since the 1950s.
“Back then, the pistachio trade was a domain of the rich. When I was a teenager there were only four wholesale houses. Today there are ten times as many,” he says.
“It became more accessible in the 1950s. Part of the population became more affluent, and so the clientele grew. I still have about 100 customers,” he added while sitting in the back of his store under a black and white photo of his father.
But despite more than 70 years of activity, he is not ready to hand over the reins to his daughter.
“First you have to learn,” he said with a mischievous smile.
“It’s not an easy business, but she will learn.”
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