Top 28 Turkish Hazelnut Exporters & Suppliers

It has been found out that hazelnut was produced in North Anatolia / Turkey in the  Blacksea coast 2300 years ago, and had been exported to many countries for almost 6 centuries.

Turkey, which is one of the few countries in the world with favourable weather conditions for hazelnut production, accounts for 75% of the global production and 70-75% of the total hazelnut exports.

Production of Turkish Hazelnut

Hazelnut fields, widely spread in the Black Sea coasts of Turkey, have been located within 30 km from the coast towards inland.

In the western Black Sea, it starts from Zonguldak (east of Istanbul) and extends to the east over the entire Black Sea like a green strip lying between the sea and the mountains almost until the Georgian boundary.

4.000.000 people are directly or indirectly related to hazelnut which has been produced on an area of 550-600 thousand hectares in Turkey, which is a fact that boosts the socio-economic importance of hazelnut.

Turkey has a distinguished place among the other hazelnut producers in the world, thanks to its high quality, and maintains its leading position in production and exports.

Production Areas of Turkish Hazelnuts

Hazelnut tree, which grows in 36′ 41′ northern latitudes and under special climate conditions, yields product within 30 km from the coast and at an altitude of maximum 750-1000 metres.

In Turkey, the regions where hazelnut is grown can be divided into two sub-regions:

1. Standard Region (eastern part of the Black Sea Region): Ordu, Giresun, Rize, Trabzon and Artvin provinces.
2. Standard Region (middle and western part of the Black Sea Region): Samsun, Sinop, Kastamonu, Bolu, Düzce, Sakarya, Zonguldak and Kocaeli provinces.

Harvesting of Hazelnuts in Turkey

Turkish hazelnut generally grows ripe between the beginning and the end of August, depending on the altitude of the field.

Timely harvest is done by picking up the hazelnuts with leaves that fall to ground when the branches are shaken off. Another method of harvesting is the one where the hazelnuts are picked one by one from the branches.

After being collected from the fields, hazelnuts are blended on the same day or a few days later depending on the field status and laid to make a bed of 10-15 cm thickness to be pre-dried under the sun until their leaves turn brown.

After drying, hazelnuts are separated from their leaves using harvesting machine (thresher) and laid over canopies in thin layers to be dried under the sun.

Total period of drying, including the pre-drying, can be maximum 15-20 days depending on the weather conditions. Drying naturally and under the sun is an important factor that gives the Turkish hazelnut its special taste.

Hazelnut Products & Uses

Besides being consumed as snack both in Turkey and in the world, about 90% of hazelnuts are used in:

• roasted,
• blanched,
• chopped,
• sliced,
• mea and paste form as a side-ingredient in
  • chocolate,
  • biscuit,
  • confectionary industry, in making
• sweets,
• pastries
• ice-cream
• in meals and salads

With a background of about five thousand years, hazelnut has great benefits for humankind through many ways such as its fruit and wood.

Hazelnut shell is used as a very valuable and high calorie fuel particularly in hazelnut growing areas in our country.

Furthermore, hazelnut wood is used in making baskets, walking sticks, chairs, fences and hand tools. Some types of hazelnut are grown as decorative plants in parks and gardens. Hazelnut leaves and fruit leaves are used as fertilizer. Hazelnut oil is made from the excess amount of hazelnut. Crude hazelnut oil is refined to be used in meals and hazelnut pulp is used as additive in the animal food industry.

Hazelnut Processing Industry and Hazelnut Trade in Turkey

Currently, there are 180 breaking plants with an internal capacity of 1.800.000 tons per annum and 40 processing plants with an internal capacity of 350.000 tons per annum in Turkey.

In 1970’s, 90% of our hazelnut export was in the form of hazelnuts with shell and natural hazelnut seeds but with the positive and fast developments in hazelnut processing industry, processed hazelnut exports started to account for 30% of our total exports in 2000.

In parallel to the complete fulfilment of buyers’ requirements with the effective and careful quality control systems in every phase of production, particularly processed hazelnut seed exports are increasing every year.

The processed hazelnuts prepared in our country have higher quality than the processed hazelnuts prepared by many exporters-manufacturers in their own plants by purchasing natural hazelnuts.

Packaging of Hazelnuts & Processed Hazelnut Products

Turkey exports hazelnut in the following forms of packaging depending on buyers’ requests.

Natural Kernel of Hazelnuts:

• generally in jute sacks of 25, 50 or 80 kg,
• in laminated bigbags of 500, 800 or 1000 kg
• in carton boxes of 10, 12.5, 20 or 25 kg (in vacuum bags, in non-vacuum polyethylene bags, directly in carton boxes)
• paper bags of 25 or 40 kg
• in vacuum or non-vacuum packaging of 25 gr, 40 gr, 80 gr, 100 gr, 200 gr, 500 gr or 1 kg directly aimed at the consumer

Blanched, Roasted, Chopped, Powder Hazelnuts:

• in jute sacks with polyethylene bags of 25 or 50 kg
• in carton boxes of 10, 12.5, 20, 25 kg (in vacuum bags, in non-vacuum polyethylene bags)
• in laminated bigbags of 500, 800 or 1000 kg
• in aluminium vacuum bags
• in vacuum or non-vacuum packaging of 25 gr, 40 gr, 80 gr, 100 gr, 200 gr, 500 gr or 1 kg directly aimed at the consumer

Sliced Hazelnut:

• in non-vacuum carton boxes with polyethylene bags of 10, 12.5, 20 or 25 kg

Hazelnut Paste:

• in food-grade plastic drums of 30, 60, 120, 200 or 220 kg
• in lacquered metal drums of 30, 60, 200 kg
• directly or by filling tanks of 20 or 22 tons

Turkish Hazelnut Types:

Turkish hazelnut is categorised into two in terms of quality, such as Giresun and Levant.

Giresun Quality:

Fat hazelnuts grown in the entire province of Giresun and fat hazelnuts grown in Besikdüzü, Vakfikebir, Çarsibasi and Akçaabat towns of the province of Trabzon, which are more or less similar to Giresun quality.

These are the highest quality hazelnuts in the world. These are the hazelnuts that have the highest level of skin separation among the types in the world.

Levant Quality:

This is the common name given to all hazelnuts that are grown in regions other than the region of Giresun quality hazelnut.

Called Levant Akçakoca, Levant Ordu, Levant Trabzon or Levant Samsun depending on the place they are grown, these hazelnuts have a lower level of fat than the Giresun quality hazelnuts but a higher level of fat than those grown in the other countries and a better taste.

• In-Shell Hazelnuts
• Decorticated Hazelnut Kernels
• Processed Hazelnut Kernels

Turkey’s Hazelnut Exports:

Besides being the biggest hazelnut producer in the world, our country is also the biggest hazelnut exporting country. Turkey’s hazelnut export is mainly aimed at the European Union countries and the share of these countries increase in parallel with the increase in our exports.

The share of the EU countries in our total exports is about 80-85%, though it changes over the years.

In 2019 Turkey has exported 319.772 tons shelled hazelnuts. The value has been around 2 Nillion USD for this amount.

This represents an increase of 14,5% in quantity and 24& in Value when compared to 2018.

The top importing countries of Turkish hazelnuts are Italy, Germany and France.