By Ed Finkel – Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery
Published July 16, 2025
Consumers interested in BFY snacking are driving modest growth in snack mixes and nuts.
The nuts and snack mixes categories have seen slightly diverging fortunes; sales of snack nuts have been down moderately, while trail mixes have risen a bit during the past year. Consumers keep seeking new flavors, more healthful options, and convenience. At the same time, producers are facing challenges like tariffs, higher prices, labor issues, and availability of water and other resources.
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Looking back
Pistachios have moved well in terms of volume, particularly pistachio kernels, which are beginning to make their way into the bakery and confectionery aisles, notes Jeff Nichols, vice president, supply chain for Nichols Farms. While consumption of shelled pistachios has decreased, more consumers are drawn to kernels with no shell, he says.
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Another challenge facing producers in California has been the state’s Water Management Act, which governs the use of H2O, a move Nichols believes had become necessary given estimates that roughly 20% of the state’s currently farmed acres won’t be farmable by 2040.
“We’ve had to become very smart with how we use water,” he says. “That’s going to create challenges down the road, to produce the crop. But obviously with the water basin, we want to ensure that whatever we’re pumping out of that basin is being replenished.”
Over the past year, Nichols Farms has rolled out a new organic line of pistachios with four flavors: in-shell rosemary garlic and habanero lime, and shelled maple butter and hot honey; the latter has been most popular.
Read the full report here
