Hazelnut shortages are causing major concerns at the moment, after a severe frost devastated crops in Turkey.
Turkey produces around 70 per cent of the world's hazelnuts but a severe frost and hail storms in March affected the crop. Now producers are warning that the harvest could be down to 540,000 tonnes, far below the expected 800,000 tones. The full extent of the damage will not be known until the end of the harvest in October.
The price of the nuts has reached $10,500 per tonne, compared to $6,500 per tonne in February an increase of over 60 per cent. This represents a ten year high.
Some manufacturers of bags of mixed nuts have already started removing hazelnuts from packs.
This will also have a knock on effect for chocolate producers, to add to their woes of rising coca prices due to the increasing popularity of chocolate in China and India. Hazelnuts are used extensively in confectionery and cannot easily be substituted with other nuts. For example, Cadbury's Whole Nut bar is made with hazelnuts and is one of its best sellers.
The biggest buyer of hazelnuts is Ferrero who makes Ferrero Rocher, Kinder Bueno and Nutella. The company uses around 25 per cent of the world's hazelnut supply and makes around 180 million kg of the hazelnut spread Nutella every year. The fact that it has recently bought Turkey's largest hazelnut processor, Oltan, could offer it some protection, however it is a worry for other chocolate manufacturers that one of the main hazelnut suppliers is owned by a competitor.
© 2014 European Supermarket Magazine – Europe’s grocery retail magazine, for all your breaking supermarket, convenience store and FMCG news. Article written by Nicole Gernon
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