TOvis-à-vis savers, the hazelnut harvest has started. In Lot-et-Garonne or Tarn-et-Garonne, the two most popular departments for squirrels, pickers are busy. However, it will be necessary to wait until mid-October to do the accounts. But farmers are under no illusions. This year, their bags of nuts will be less full than the unsinkable Livret A.
“The spring frost wiped out the harvest. We should experience an impact of 50% on the production potential ”, estimates Jean-Luc Reigne, general manager of the specialized cooperative Unicoque, based in Cancon in Lot-et-Garonne. The polar cold wave that swept over France in early April did not spare this region. On the earliest trees, the hazelnuts froze.
However, all arborists know it, Mother Nature loves the two-beat waltz. One year is fruitful, the other not. 2021 was supposed to be, but she decided otherwise. She changed her record and opted for ballet Nutcracker. As a result, the producers will dance in front of the buffet, with a new small harvest estimated at between 6,000 and 7,000 tonnes.
Highly coveted safe
However, that lovers of praline chocolates or spreads can rest assured. No need to rush into the supermarket shelves. In Turkey, the branches of hazelnuts bend under the weight of the fruit. Production could reach a historic level of 800,000 to 840,000 tonnes. Knowing that this country holds 75% of the world’s resources. A truly coveted safe. Unsurprisingly, the biggest nutcracker pointed it out. In this case, the Italian Ferrero, who in 2014 seized the Turkish group Oltan, in order to master the strategic ingredient of Nutella.
But in Italy, Ferrero has a lot to do with its competitors. In particular the Barilla group, which has launched its own spread, under the Pan di Stelle brand. To seduce gourmets, it shows its difference: in its recipe, less sugar, no palm oil and above all more hazelnuts, moreover Italian. Arguments that hit the mark in the land of the famous Piedmont hazelnut. Especially since a controversy over child labor paid for a few nuts in Turkish fields has darkened the picture.
In France, even if new orchards have been planted, the area of hazelnut trees is limited to 6,500 hectares.
Ferrero has decided to respond with an initiative dubbed “Progetto Nocciola Italia”. Or how to encourage transalpine farmers to plant 20,000 hectares of hazelnut trees by 2025. That is to say an increase in surface area of 30%. The project is drawing criticism from those who fear that olive trees or vines will be uprooted to make way for a lucrative monoculture. Or how to look for hazelnuts …
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