Turkey’s Hazelnut Stronghold

Every time a knife scrapes Nutella across toast in Paris, São Paulo, or Seoul, there’s a good chance the flavor in that jar was grown on a steep, misty hillside overlooking Turkey’s Black Sea.

Turkey doesn’t just participate in the hazelnut trade—it dominates it. Recent estimates suggest the country produces roughly 650,000 tonnes of hazelnuts a year, close to 60–70% of global output, depending on the dataset. In many seasons, it also accounts for around three-quarters of world hazelnut exports.

On the other side of this supply chain sits Ferrero, the Italian confectionery giant behind Nutella and Ferrero Rocher. Ferrero alone buys about a quarter of the world’s hazelnut crop, with a particularly heavy footprint in Turkey. Nutella may be marketed as a simple breakfast spread, but it’s built on a complex, fragile relationship between one global brand and one producer country.

This is the story of how Turkey became the world’s hazelnut stronghold—and why that matters for the future of Nutella.

1. How Nutella Turned Hazelnuts into a Global Commodity

From wartime scarcity to global breakfast

Nutella’s origins are surprisingly political and improvised. In the 19th century, chocolatiers in Turin began mixing cocoa with plentiful local hazelnuts to stretch expensive cocoa during trade disruptions. The result was gianduia, a chocolate-hazelnut paste that became a regional classic.

After World War II, cocoa was again scarce and costly. In 1946, Italian pastry maker Pietro Ferrero created Pasta Giandujot, a dense loaf of sweet hazelnut-cocoa paste that could be sliced onto bread.

That loaf evolved into a spread called Supercrema in 1951, and in 1964 Pietro’s son Michele reworked the formula and rebranded it as Nutella. Within a generation, Nutella had spread across Europe and then the world, turning what was once a local Piedmont specialty into a global mass-market product.

A product that is “only” 13% hazelnuts—yet drives the market

Nutella is, chemically speaking, more sugar and oil than nuts. Ferrero itself notes that the spread is primarily sugar and palm oil; independent analyses show hazelnuts make up about 13% of the recipe by weight.

That sounds modest—until you zoom out to the global scale:

• A standard 220 g jar contains roughly 50 hazelnuts.

• Ferrero uses about 25% of the world’s hazelnut supply, according to trade and industry estimates.

• In Turkey specifically, some recent seasons have seen Ferrero buying roughly a quarter of the national crop for products like Nutella and Ferrero Rocher.

When you multiply millions of jars by 50 nuts each, the volume adds up fast. Hazelnuts aren’t just “an ingredient” in Nutella; they are the limiting resource that shapes the entire business.

2. Why Turkey? Geography, History, and a Perfect Nut

The Black Sea’s hazelnut belt

Turkey’s dominance isn’t accidental. The hazelnut tree (Corylus avellana) thrives in cool, humid climates with well-drained soils—conditions that are almost tailor-made in the Black Sea region.

Several provinces along Turkey’s northern coast—especially Ordu, Giresun, Trabzon and Samsun—form the heart of global hazelnut production. Turkish and FAO data show that historically about 60% of the country’s hazelnut crop comes from the Eastern Black Sea region, with the rest split between central and western sub-regions.

A few features make this landscape uniquely suited:

• Steep slopes: Hazelnut bushes cling to hillsides where many other crops struggle.

• Small plots: Many families have just a few decares (less than a hectare or two), making hazelnuts an ideal, low-maintenance cash crop.

• Perennial trees: Once established, orchards can produce for decades, sometimes longer than 70 years, even if yields decline without renewed care.

A nation of hazelnut farmers

Ferrero’s own sustainability reporting estimates there are around 600,000 hazelnut farmers in the world—and about 550,000 of them are in Turkey. That’s an astonishing concentration of both production and livelihoods.

For many households in the Black Sea region, hazelnuts are:

• The main cash crop

• A form of savings (nuts can be stored and sold later)

• A cultural anchor, with harvest season tied to local festivals and family migration patterns

The Turkish government has long treated hazelnuts as a strategic commodity, supporting prices through the Turkish Grain Board (TMO), which acts as a buyer of last resort. In recent years, TMO has regularly announced intervention prices and raised them significantly to protect farmers from inflation and market shocks.

It’s not an exaggeration to say hazelnuts are to Turkey what coffee is to Brazil or cocoa to Côte d’Ivoire—a crop that ties rural livelihoods to global consumer brands.

3. The Numbers: How Big Is Turkey’s Hazelnut Stronghold?

Turkey vs. the world

Let’s start with global production. Using 2023 estimates from World Population Review (based on FAO data), the picture is stark:

Table 1 – Top Hazelnut Producers, 2023

*World total ≈ 1.1 million tonnes in 2023.

Other sources that aggregate multiple seasons (e.g., International Nut and Dried Fruit Council data summarized in Turkey’s official presentations) show Turkey’s share even higher—around 68–71% of global hazelnut production, depending on the year.

Either way, the message is clear: no other country breaks even 10% individually. The gap between Turkey and the rest is enormous.

Turkey’s own production swings

Turkey’s hazelnut output is large—but also volatile. Official statistics compiled for the Türkiye–EU hazelnut cooperation scheme show in-shell production bouncing between 420,000 and 776,000 tonnes over the past decade:

• 2015: 646,000 t

• 2016: 420,000 t (poor harvest)

• 2017: 675,000 t

• 2019: 776,000 t (bumper crop)

• 2021: 684,000 t

• 2023 estimate: 650,000 t

These swings are usually driven by weather (frosts, storms, droughts) and pest outbreaks—factors that now increasingly intersect with climate change (we’ll come back to that).

The export machine: feeding Europe’s chocolate habit

Turkey’s hazelnut economy is export-driven. TRT World reports that annual exports total around 300,000 tonnes of hazelnut kernels, earning about US$2 billion in a typical season.

Most of those nuts go into industrial processing—chocolate, pralines, spreads, and bakery products—rather than retail packs of table nuts. Over the past few decades, the share of processed hazelnut products (roasted, chopped, paste, etc.) in Turkey’s exports has risen from roughly a quarter to about 40%.

And the biggest buyer is unmistakable: the European Union.

The 2022–23 figures from Turkey’s statistical institute show:

• EU imports: 227,241 tonnes of Turkish hazelnuts

• Non-EU imports: 73,671 tonnes

• EU’s share of Turkey’s hazelnut exports: ≈75.5% by volume

Drill down further and you see where Nutella’s flavor is actually going.

Table 2 – Turkey’s Hazelnut (Shelled) Exports to the EU, 2022–23
(Top destinations)

Germany and Italy alone absorb more than 60% of Turkey’s hazelnut exports to the EU—a neat reflection of where Europe’s chocolate and hazelnut industries are clustered.

Germany is a processing and re-export hub for confectionery, while Italy is home to Ferrero itself and a dense ecosystem of high-end chocolatiers and bakers.

4. Nutella’s Dependence on Turkey

Nutella may be an Italian brand, but its supply chain runs straight through the Turkish Black Sea.

How much of Nutella is “Turkish”?

Several overlapping facts illustrate the dependency:

• Nutella composition: About 13% of each jar is hazelnuts.

• Ferrero’s global footprint: The company uses roughly a quarter of global hazelnut production, not only for Nutella but also Ferrero Rocher, Kinder products, and more.

• Turkey-specific buying power: Ferrero has at times purchased around 25% of Turkey’s hazelnut production, making it the single most influential corporate buyer in the Turkish hazelnut sector.

Turkey is still the core of Ferrero’s hazelnut sourcing, even though the company has spent two decades planting or contracting orchards in other countries like Chile and the United States to reduce risk.

In a typical year, Turkey harvests 600,000–700,000 tonnes of hazelnuts and supplies close to two-thirds of global output. In seasons with frost or pest damage, that can crash toward 300,000 tonnes, squeezing both Turkey and Ferrero at the same time.

When frosts in Ordu threaten breakfast in Paris

Recent years have shown just how fragile this relationship is:

• A series of frosts and storms in the 2010s and 2020s repeatedly cut Turkey’s hazelnut crop and triggered price spikes.

• In 2025, severe spring frosts and pest outbreaks slashed Turkish yields, prompting forecasts that production might fall from typical levels of 600,000–700,000 tonnes to as low as 300,000 tonnes. Hazelnut prices doubled in a matter of months.

The Financial Times recently described a “stand-off” between Ferrero and Turkish hazelnut dealers: traders hoarded nuts expecting Ferrero to pay whatever it took, while Ferrero relied on existing stocks and alternative suppliers (Chile, the U.S., Serbia, Italy) to avoid bidding up prices even further.

For Nutella fans, the product doesn’t disappear from shelves overnight because Ferrero carries inventory and hedges. But the underlying tension highlights a simple truth: if Turkey has a bad hazelnut year, the global chocolate and spreads industry feels it almost immediately.

5. The Human Side: Labor, Migration, and Child Work in the Orchards

The story of Turkish hazelnuts isn’t only about yields and prices. It’s also about people—hundreds of thousands of farmers and seasonal workers whose labor is embedded in every jar of Nutella.

Smallholders and thin margins

Most hazelnut farms in Turkey are small, family-run orchards. Many farmers rely on hazelnuts as their primary cash income but face:

• Fluctuating farm-gate prices

• Rising labor, fertilizer, and input costs

• Aging trees and low-yield traditional planting systems

Research and industry reports repeatedly emphasize that low hazelnut prices at the farm level translate into:

• Low wages for harvest workers

• Long working hours

• Poor living and working conditions in temporary camps

Even when world prices spike, small farmers may not benefit fully if intermediaries or traders capture most of the upside.

Seasonal migrant workers and child labor risks

A large share of harvest labor in the Black Sea comes from seasonal migrant workers, many from southeastern Turkey (including Kurdish regions) who travel north for the August–September harvest.

Multiple investigations by the ILO, Fair Labor Association, Rainforest Alliance, and national NGOs have highlighted child labor risks in hazelnut harvesting:

• In some areas, more than 40% of workers are aged 15–18, and up to 10% are younger children, according to Rainforest Alliance field reports.

• Children reportedly carry heavy loads, work long hours on steep slopes, and may miss school during harvest season.

This has become a reputational issue not only for Turkey but also for brands like Nutella and for European chocolate makers more broadly.

Efforts to clean up the supply chain

In response, there’s now a dense web of pilot projects, certification schemes, and corporate commitments:

• The ILO has run programs such as “In a Nutshell” to establish summer schools and reduce child labor in hazelnut regions.

• The Fair Labor Association (FLA) has worked with companies—including Nestlé—to assess and improve labor practices in the Turkish hazelnut sector.

• European confectionery associations (CAOBISCO) and the ILO are now in their twelfth year of a joint project aimed at eliminating child labor in hazelnut harvesting along Turkey’s Black Sea coast.

• The Turkish Competition Board recently accepted a commitment from Ferrero’s local buying arm that it would not purchase hazelnuts below TMO’s reference price, an attempt to ensure farmers receive at least the official floor and reduce pressure that trickles down into wages and working conditions.

These efforts don’t magically fix all problems. Monitoring is difficult, the supply chain is fragmented, and enforcement capacity is limited. But they indicate that hazelnuts—and by extension Nutella—are very much part of the broader debate over ethical sourcing in global food chains.

6. Climate Change and the Fragility of Turkey’s Hazelnut Monopoly

Turkey’s unique geography gave it a monopoly-like position in hazelnuts. Climate change is now starting to chip away at that advantage.

A climate-sensitive crop

Hazelnuts are extremely sensitive at certain growth stages:

• Late frosts in spring can kill developing buds.

• Heat waves and drought can stress trees and reduce kernel quality.

• Heavy storms can physically knock nuts from branches or cause landslides on steep hillsides.

A detailed study on the mid-term impact of climate change on Turkish hazelnut yields projected that by mid-century, yields could decline by up to 13% in roughly half of current production areas, especially in parts of the Eastern Black Sea.

Climate-related events are already visible:

• In 2014, frost damage in Turkey sent hazelnut prices sharply higher and created a global shortage.

• In 2018, a powerful storm washed tens of thousands of tonnes of hazelnuts into the Black Sea.

• Turkish agricultural news outlets and statistics show that in some recent years, hazelnut production has fallen by more than 15% due in part to weather anomalies.

The 2025 frost and pest season, which halved expected output and doubled prices, is just the latest example of what a warming, more volatile climate can do.

Rising prices, volatile markets

With supply constrained, prices for Turkish hazelnuts have soared:

• Benchmark kernel prices jumped to around US$17 per kilogram in 2025, up more than 120% year-on-year according to industry price trackers.

• EU retail prices for hazelnut-based products have risen by roughly 27–65% over the past three years, reflecting both tighter supply and strong demand.

Interestingly, Nutella itself contains “only” about 13% hazelnuts, so the direct impact of nut price spikes on the jar price is somewhat muted compared with higher-nut-content spreads. But for pralines, premium chocolate bars, and high-end spreads, hazelnut cost spikes are much harder to absorb.

7. The Rise of Competitors: Can Anyone Challenge Turkey?

Turkey is still the undisputed leader—but other countries are actively expanding to reduce dependence on its crop.

New orchards in the Americas and the Caucasus

Beyond the traditional players like Italy, several countries have become increasingly important:

• The United States, particularly Oregon’s Willamette Valley, now produces around 85,500 tonnes of hazelnuts annually.

• Chile has invested heavily in hazelnut orchards; production jumped by about 63% in one recent year, turning the country into a serious counter-seasonal supplier.

• Azerbaijan and Georgia have expanded their planted area and now rank among the top five producers globally.

These regions often have more mechanizable orchards (flatter terrain, younger trees) and easier consolidation, which can lead to higher yields and lower per-unit labor costs than Turkey’s patchwork of steep smallholdings.

Ferrero has been a key driver of this diversification, investing in hazelnut projects in Chile and the U.S., and experimenting elsewhere.

A monopoly under pressure—but still central

Despite this, Turkey’s position remains central:

• Even with growth in Chile, the U.S., and the Caucasus, no country is close to matching Turkey’s share of global production.

• Turkey also has an enormous installed base of orchards and hundreds of thousands of farmers whose knowledge and networks can’t be replicated overnight.

The risk for Turkey is not that it will cease to matter, but that relative dominance may erode if:

• Climate-related volatility continues

• Yields remain low on aging, poorly maintained orchards

• Labor and governance challenges keep drawing negative attention from global buyers

In that scenario, buyers like Ferrero have both the motive and the capital to accelerate investments elsewhere.

8. Turkey’s Hazelnut Strategy: Holding Onto the Nutella Crown

If Turkey wants to remain Nutella’s primary orchard, several levers matter.

1. Improving yields and orchard management

Studies of “exemplary” hazelnut gardens in Turkey show that with better pruning, fertilization, and weed control, yields can more than double compared to traditional practices.

Key steps include:

• Replacing very old trees with newer varieties

• Shifting from multi-stem “bushes” to more efficient training systems

• Using soil-appropriate fertilization and organic matter (including composted hazelnut husks)

These agronomic improvements can raise output without expanding hazelnut area into sensitive ecosystems.

2. Stabilizing prices and farmer incomes

The Turkish Grain Board’s intervention pricing—effectively a floor price for hazelnuts—aims to:

• Protect farmers from extreme downside price risk

• Prevent panic selling in bumper years

• Reduce the incentive for buyers to push prices below sustainable levels

Ferrero’s commitment to avoid buying below TMO prices, coupled with competition law oversight, is part of this stabilization effort.

If successful, these policies could give farmers more room to invest in orchard renewal and better labor practices.

3. Cleaning up labor practices

Pressure from NGOs, unions, and consumers is pushing Turkey and its buyers toward more transparent and humane labor standards:

• Scaling up verified no-child-labor programs

• Improving worker housing, sanitation, and contracts for seasonal migrants

• Extending formal education during harvest via summer schools or mobile classrooms

If the hazelnut sector can credibly show progress, it reduces reputational risk for brands like Nutella and makes Turkey a more appealing long-term sourcing partner.

4. Adapting to climate change

Finally, there’s the climate challenge. Research suggests:

• Some current hazelnut zones in the Eastern Black Sea may become less suitable by mid-century.

• Other parts of Turkey—or entirely new regions—might become viable with the right varieties and practices.

Adaptation strategies include:

• Shifting orchards to slightly higher altitudes or different slopes

• Planting more resilient varieties

• Upgrading drainage and soil management to cope with heavy rains and landslides

The stakes aren’t only national. For global chocolate makers, a climate-resilient Turkish hazelnut sector is arguably cheaper than building an entirely new supply system from scratch elsewhere.

9. Beyond the Jar: Nutella, Power, and a Single Crop

Stand in a supermarket aisle in France, where per-capita Nutella consumption is among the highest in the world, and it’s easy to see only the end product: a jar, a logo, a familiar flavor.

Look upstream, and that jar is revealed as a dense knot of:

• Geography – hillside orchards along Turkey’s Black Sea

• Economics – price floors, state intervention, global commodity cycles

• Labor – migrant workers, child labor risks, and the politics of low wages

• Climate – frosts, storms, and slow-burn shifts in suitability zones

• Corporate Power – a single buyer (Ferrero) whose purchasing decisions can move national markets

Turkey’s hazelnut stronghold made Nutella possible at global scale. Nutella, in turn, has locked a huge slice of the Turkish countryside into a globalized, brand-driven value chain.

Whether Turkey will still supply “most of the world’s Nutella” in 20 or 30 years depends on a few big questions:

• Can it raise yields without trashing the environment?

• Can it ensure decent working conditions and eliminate child labor risks?

• Can it adapt orchards fast enough to stay ahead of climate change?

• And will Ferrero and other buyers continue to see Turkey as the indispensable heart of their hazelnut supply—or just one supplier among many?

For now, though, if you open a jar of Nutella, odds are good that the nuts inside were picked by hand on a steep Turkish hillside, carried in sacks by seasonal workers, bought at a price influenced by Ankara and Alba alike—and then roasted, ground, and blended into a spread that has turned one country’s hillside crop into a global cultural artifact.