The President of the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page Sánchez, has accepted the chairmanship of the Honorary Committee of the World Pistachio Congress (WPC), the first congress of global scope dedicated exclusively to the pistachio sector, whose inaugural edition will take place on 27 and 28 January 2027 at the Toledo Congress Centre.
Under his chairmanship, the WPC Honorary Committee currently comprises the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas Puchades; the Regional Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Rural Development of Castilla-La Mancha, Julián Martínez Lizán; the Regional Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of Andalusia, Ramón Fernández-Pacheco Monterreal; and the Regional Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and the Natural Environment of Extremadura, Juan José García. The Honorary Committee is made up of figures from the institutional and political spheres, whose contribution is entirely honorary, lending their support to the initiative through their presence and membership of the committee.
This institutional backing comes at a decisive moment for the Spanish pistachio sector. Spain closed 2025 with 89,794 registered hectares of pistachio, of which 69,441 — close to eight in every ten — are concentrated in Castilla-La Mancha, placing the country as the world's fifth-largest producer, with ambitions to rise to third position behind California and Iran. The 2025 regional harvest reached 11,000 tonnes of dried pistachio, 30% above initial forecasts, and all of this with barely a quarter of the planted area in production: most of the sector's growth potential is still to come.
"The fact that the President of Castilla-La Mancha has accepted the chairmanship of the World Pistachio Congress Honorary Committee, together with the backing of the Minister for Agriculture and of the regional ministers from the main producing regions, represents institutional endorsement of the highest order for a project born with a global and permanent vocation," said Juan Miguel del Real, Director General of Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias Castilla-La Mancha, in his capacity as Chair of the WPC Organising Committee. "Our aim as organisers is for Toledo to become the world capital of pistachio for those two days, a meeting point where growers, industry, research, marketing and institutions can share knowledge, anticipate trends and prepare the sector for the challenges ahead."
The congress programme is being drawn up by its Scientific Committee, chaired by Dr Louise Ferguson (University of California, Davis), one of the world's leading authorities on pistachio physiology, together with the Organising Committee. The WPC will be structured around two complementary days, with separate registration, covering everything from production and sustainability to health, markets and innovation.
About the World Pistachio Congress
The World Pistachio Congress (WPC) is an international initiative created to bring together, structure and project the pistachio sector globally, integrating all operators along the value chain within a shared environment of knowledge, cooperation and strategic vision. The WPC is conceived not simply as a one-off event but as a permanent strategic and professional platform, aimed at generating technical and scientific knowledge, driving innovation, fostering cooperation between operators and preparing the sector to meet present and future challenges.
Up-to-date information is available at www.worldpistachiocongress.org and on the congress profiles on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and X, under the hashtag #WPC2027.
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