Narrator: In the remote forests of Northeastern China,
local harvesters climb trees as high as 100 feet
to reach this region's most valuable product.
Pine nuts.
The job is dangerous, but the reward is high
for people willing to risk their lives.
In the US, pine nuts, which are actually seeds,
can sell for upwards of $117 a kilogram.
Compare that to the price of pistachios,
which can sell for about $39 a kilogram.
So what makes pine nuts so special,
and why are they so expensive?
Around the world, there are 30 species
of pine trees that produce edible seeds.
Yet only a handful are sold commercially,
like Korean pine, which grows here in Northeastern China.
It needs specific conditions to grow,
and unlike almonds and pecans,
which can be commercially grown
on orchards and plantations,
most pine nuts come from natural forests.
The trees need to grow for at least 25 to 50 years
before they bear cones and seeds.
Even after all this time,
individual trees will only be ripe for picking
once every two years.
When the time comes, local harvesters
make their way into the forest
to do the most dangerous part of the job
the moment they arrive:
scaling those 100-foot trees
to reach the cones and seeds.
Narrator: Those who are willing
climb 20 to 30 trees each day,
armed with long poles
and spikes attached to their boots,
which they use to knock the cones to the forest floor.
Narrator: Because of the risk,
and because this job can't be done by machines,
processors must also pay for accident insurance.
It costs about 900 yuan, or $139,
per worker each month.
And insurance costs get even more expensive
for harvesting companies when paying for workers by the day.
Narrator: Another unpredictable element
of harvesting pine nuts
is just how much time harvesters have
to collect the pine cones each season.
For example, the Korean pine season
typically starts on September 1
and can last as long as two months
or be as short as 20 days.
This brief window of time means laborers
have to collect as many cones as possible
into their large burlap sacks.
On average, they can fill four to six bags a day,
with a single sack often weighing as much as 142 pounds.
They get paid by processors in two ways.
First, they earn a day rate,
which is around $123 a day.
And second, they get paid by how much they harvest.
As of September 2021, a processor will pay $720
for four full bags of cones.
These bags then go to a processing facility,
where the cones are opened and crushed
to reveal the pine nut shells inside.
Cones that are sold to processors
often come in green and unripened
and need additional processing.
Narrator: Knowing exactly when a pine cone
needs to be threshed
is an important part of the process,
as it can determine the quality of the seeds inside
and ultimately the final price they can be sold for.
Narrator: It's only after the pine cone scales are opened
that the pine nuts can be extracted,
and even then, the cones don't yield many seeds.
Narrator: This means that 250 kilograms of pine cones
yields only 50 kilograms of pine nuts.
Because a majority of pine trees grow in natural forests,
there are large variations in the yield from year to year.
This causes demand to often outweigh supply,
driving the overall price of pine nuts up.
But the price of each pine nut also depends on its size.
Narrator: Once processed, some seeds are sold
as they are now, in their shells.
Others are sold as the white nuts
you see in dishes like pesto.
They're the same nuts,
just with the outer shell removed.
The two largest producers of pine nuts
are East Asia and the Mediterranean.
Korean pine, which is the most common species
to grow in China,
makes up 59% of the world's global supply.
By 2025, the pine nut market
is expected to grow by $332 million.
And with a growing demand
for foods like pesto and hummus,
it's likely that the price you pay for pine nuts
will only continue to rise.