Hazelnut Industry Setting Records

With the fruit grower report I’m Susan Allen. Given the cornucopia of tree fruit and nuts crops we grow here in the NW we often overlook the hazel nut. But as Carl Laux, Regional Agriculture and Turf Sales Manager for Papé Machinery will attest the advances and statistics of the industry are pretty impressive.

LAUX: Well as we all know the industry is growing exponentially in the last five to ten years there has been a tremendous amount of acres planted in the Willamette Valley. With the production going up as high as it is there is some new technology out there. They are experimenting with mechanical hedging verses hand pruning the orchard, there are some blight resistant trees that Oregon State University is developing so they don’t have to put as many chemicals and sprays on them on them. And of course floor management, how to maintain the floor of the orchard as well.

Can you tell us a little bit about the market for hazelnuts.

LAUX: Yes a lot of our hazelnuts stay domestically. Oregon is known for the high quality of hazelnuts out of any other country in the world. As we all know Oregon grows 99 percent of the hazelnuts in North America so they are all grown right here in the Willamette Valley. What’s really taken the hazel nuts to the level it is today is a company call Ferano out of Italy, the are the ones that produce Nutella, and the Nutella product which has hazelnuts in it has really exploded globally so that demand has really increased the production of hazelnuts. Turkey of course is the largest exporter of hazelnuts, then Italy than Spain and Greece.

Like the majority of the other tree fruit crops in the NW hazelnut harvest is projected to be two to three weeks early.