As part of a $70 million investment, Agri Australis, the Australian arm of the Ferraro Group – the third biggest chocolate and confectionary company in the world – has planted 1 million hazelnut trees on farmland near Narrandera, New South Wales, Australia.
Founded in Italy in 1946 by Pietro Ferrero, family-owned Ferraro is the world’s top producer and user of hazelnuts thanks to its chocolate spread, Nutella, which holds 54 percent of the global market. It is also the name behind other well known brands including Ferrero Rocher and Kinder Surprise.
The 2,600-hectare farm includes 1,860 hectares of cultivated land, and is operating as a demonstration farm for the company, which is trialing two varieties of hazelnuts to determine the one best suited to the climate in the Riverina region. Once harvested, the nuts will be assessed and used in the production of either Nutella and Ferrero Rocher, ice cream, or they will be destined for the fresh market.
Historically, Turkey, which produced 70 percent of the world’s hazelnuts in 2016, has been the dominant supplier in the $2.8 billion global hazelnut trade, leaving Ferrero and other companies somewhat hostage to volatile prices and often tight supplies.
In response, Ferrero has been stalwart in its pursuit of alternative channels of supplies, including deals in Serbia, India, Chile, South Africa, the state of New Jersey in the U.S., and Canada, according to Ferrero agronomist Barb Yates. Aside from Ferrero’s hazelnut farming initiatives in Italy, China, Germany, Poland, India, and Brazil, Chile alone saw its hazelnut exports reach 6,500 tons in 2016 – five times the year before.
“Everyone is looking for new places to plant hazelnuts,” Jaime Armengolli, owner of Chilean grower and processor Agricola La Campana, told Reuters last year. “Yields are good. Costs are low. Growers are very optimistic.”
Recently, Ferrero has turned its attention to the Southern Hemisphere, where anti-cyclical seasons would strengthen the company’s flow of hazelnuts year-round.
Looking at South Africa, South America, and Australia, the company states that the region provides, “the possibility of exploiting the counter-seasonality effect, harvesting in the opposite season to the northern (hemisphere) and having the possibility of fresh hazelnuts year round.”
Paul Geurtsen, development coordinator with Agri Australis, said that now that the one millionth tree is planted, the first trees planted at the site – which uses drip irrigation supplied by the Murrumbidgee River and groundwater – will be soon ready to harvest.
Once in full production, it is expected that the farm will produce 5,000 tons of in-shell hazelnuts by 2020.
-Lynda Kiernan