Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The meteoric rise of Dubai chocolate has triggered a global pistachio supply crunch, exacerbating a worldwide shortage of the green nut and sending its prices soaring.The bars, a marriage of pistachio cream, shredded pastry and milk chocolate, were a modest hit after their 2021 launch by boutique Emirati chocolatier FIX — until a TikTok video turned them into a global sensation. The clip, posted in December 2023, has amassed more than 120mn views and fuelled a worldwide craze for pistachio chocolate, spawning a host of knock-offs. Due to the craze, Pistachio kernel prices have surged from $7.65 a pound a year ago to around $10.30 a pound now, said Giles Hacking of nut trader CG Hacking. “The pistachio world is basically tapped out at the moment,” he said. The chocolate does not come cheap. Lindt’s Dubai offering retails at £10 for 145 grammes in the UK, more than double its other bars. But consumers are so keen that some shops are reportedly limiting how many bars each customer can buy, while Lindt and British supermarket Wm Morrison have launched pistachio cream Easter eggs.Pistachio stocks were already dwindling after a disappointing harvest last year in the US, the nut’s leading exporter. The US crop was also higher quality than usual, leaving fewer of the cheap, shell-free kernels that are generally sold as ingredients for chocolate and other food, said Hacking. “There wasn’t much in supply, so when Dubai chocolate comes along, and [chocolatiers] are buying up all the kernels they get their hands on . . . that leaves the rest of the world short,” Hacking said.Iran, the world’s second-largest producer, exported 40 per cent more pistachios to the UAE in the six months to March 2025 than it did over the full 12 months before that, according to Iran’s customs office. The shortage marks a sharp reversal from 2023 when global pistachio supply exce