Earlier this year, an unexpected frost wiped out a major chunk of Turkey’s hazelnut crop — a blow that’s now being felt across the global chocolate industry.
Turkey grows around 70% of the world’s hazelnuts, much of it along the Black Sea coast. But this year’s production is expected to fall by nearly 20% compared to last year — a loss of roughly 170,000 tons.
That’s bad news for hazelnut-reliant companies like Ferrero, the Italian chocolate giant behind Nutella. With hazelnuts playing a starring role in chocolate spreads and sweets worldwide, even a small supply shock can create ripple effects.
Since April, hazelnut prices for suppliers have surged more than 30%, and those higher costs could soon hit consumers.
Other producers like Chile and the U.S. are stepping in, but their output is far smaller than Turkey’s. The world’s hazelnut supply chain remains heavily dependent on a single region — and that’s proving risky in the face of climate volatility.
But this isn’t just a story about global brands and breakfast spreads. In Turkey, hundreds of thousands of small farmers depend on hazelnut harvesting for their livelihoods. For them, the frost didn’t just threaten profits — it threatened survival.
In an interconnected world, climate shocks in one country can shape grocery prices, supply chains, and incomes across continents. And that’s something food industry giants and national leaders can’t afford to ignore.
*This story was originally published on https://www.dw.com/ and is republished here with permission.*
