Australian hazelnut industry shifting to a larger scale: HTW

The Australian nut industry reached a record high $1,045,000,000 in exports for the 2018/19 year according to the recently released ABS report.

Property valuation firm Herron Todd White (HTW) found that the industry is currently experiencing its largest expansion in a decade, with industry value is split almost equally between domestic and imported product.

The most prominent nut products produced in the country are almonds, macadamia, walnuts, pecans, chestnuts, pistachio, and hazelnuts..

Australia currently exports nuts to around 55 countries, but a range of new free trade agreements currently in negotiation are bringing further optimism to all facets of the industry. 

Hazelnuts 

Hazelnuts are grown in the temperate areas of south-eastern Australia. The main production regions are the Central Tablelands of New South Wales around orange, Narrandera, and northeast Victoria around Myrtleford. They are also grown in central and eastern Victoria and increasingly in northern Tasmania. There are small levels of production in South Australia and Western Australia.

HTW found that many hazelnut operations are small orchards of up to 6,000 trees, although this is slowly changing with the average size of new hazelnut orchards increasing and more productive varieties being planted.

Hazelnuts generally take seven to 10 years to come into commercial production.

Australia has recently seen a major on-farm investment in hazelnuts by Ferrero, one of the world’s largest confectionery manufacturers.

Its wholly owned subsidiary, Agri Australis, has planted 1 million trees across 1,900 hectares near Narrandera.

This confirms that the opportunities for Australian hazelnuts are large, giving renewed confidence to Australian growers.

Ferrero’s first small harvest occurred in 2018.

The property valuation firm concluded that the industry is set for rapid expansion - as young orchards come into commercial bearing the industry estimates hazelnut production by 2021 will be 5,500 tonnes in-shell with a value of $40 million.