The Developments in the World Hazelnut Production and Export, the Role of Turkey

Abstract

Although hazelnut is cultivated in many countries around the world, the number of countries producing hazelnut in international trade scale is limited. The major producer and exporter countries are Turkey, Italy, USA and Spain. Other producer countries are not at a producing level that can affect the world hazelnut markets. Turkey, having 67% of the world hazelnut production, is a pioneer country in hazelnut cultivation. The quantity of hazelnut production has shown a rapid increase over the years in Turkey and as a result, supply surplus product has appeared in certain years especially after 1980. In recent years, competition among countries has increased due to supply surplus of hazelnut in the world. This situation has led the countries, such as Turkey, to develop policies in topics like low-cost production, elevating the number of hazelnut crops and production of high quality hazelnut suitable to processing industry. © 2006 Asian Network for Scientific Information.