Drafted February 2021, updated 10 February 2026
This is the sequel to Ferrero: hazelnut policy in Italy and Turkey
I start from the beginning : If you say : “I love you Italy” (current Nutella campaign) , you have to prove it from the field to the shelf.
And anyway, a vision on Italy alone is no longer enough, as Ferrero is a multinational.
I was told: ‘follow what the press says’. So I let a farmer speak, the only one who dared to speak on this subject (but others, many, followed even if they do not mention Ferrero directly)
Ahmed El Idrissi on LinkedIn:
“… Ferrero is not the only company with strong roots in the territory that processes the raw material: hazelnuts.
What I see based on my very small experience (growing a few hectares of hazelnuts as a hobby) is the opposition of interests between Industry (big companies, multinationals) and farmers (small or micro companies).
The question is why CAN’T THEY MAKE A SYSTEM, perhaps by shortening the supply chain?
It would be wonderful if producers of IGP Piedmont hazelnuts were properly remunerated and proud to contribute to the production of a UNIQUE PRODUCT that can be exported all over the world, or at least to the Italian market!
Let us learn from what the wine sector is doing, which in the last 20 years has focused on enhancing quality as well as price.
But it is not possible to accept a current hazelnut price of less than EUR 3.00 per kg! Practically the same price at which Turkish hazelnuts are bought! We cannot expect small farms to survive on state subsidies (until when ?)
The beautiful thing about this sector, the hazelnuts, is that they are paid to the producer net of the weight of the shell (it is a bit like if I paid oranges net of the peel, the other day I am in a well-known supermarket and I see the Piedmont hazelnuts at 9.80 euro per kg, I jump I had just sold them at 2,80 per kg, I was tempted to ask the clerk if the price referred to the net of the shell but then I let it go because he would not have understood) and then if I do organic and do not use insecticides I am further penalised because on all the product ruined by the bug I suffer a penalty! It’s unbelievable’
Giuseppe Caprotti :
“at 2.80 is below cost?”
Ahmed El Idrissi :
“Absolutely! At 2.80 euro a lot of producers I know are keeping the product at home in the hope that the price will go up over Christmas! the problem is that many have made major investments in machinery and plant products and ..the bills have to be paid (at least for those who are small).”
Ahmed El Idrissi:
“If we want to valorise biodiversity, if we want to valorise the land, if we want to valorise the product, we cannot think of planting thousands of hectares of hazelnut groves in lowland areas along gullies where maize was previously grown!
And then down with herbicides, pesticides, chemical fertilisers, etc. … and then the resulting product is blander than a potato and tastes more like a peanut than a hazelnut.
Let’s value the products that come from areas in Italy with a historical vocation, let’s value those producers who do organic.
When I go shopping for 20 linear metres of wine, I have the wine in a carton, but I can also find the maps that tell me about the territory, I can also find the municipality that is particularly dear to me, because my grandfather was a partner in that winery, and I also remember the vineyards that produced those grapes. Can we make 5 linear metres with baked goods, creams, etc. that tell me where those hazelnuts come from?
… My thought is that of the need to create a system between producers, the confectionery industry (understood as both artisan and multinational laboratories), distribution and perhaps institutions to enhance the raw material, that is the tonda gentile trilobata hazelnut produced in the Langhe, in some municipalities of the Asti and Alessandria areas, through the production and marketing of products with a strong connotation linked to the territory.
All this to create wealth in that territory, to enhance that territory, to preserve that territory, to make that territory known abroad.
But this is possible in my opinion if the equation Turkish hazelnut price = price of the hazelnut produced in Clavesana, for example, is broken;
Itis necessary to avoid foreign hazelnuts and Piedmontese hazelnuts in the same product,
the other day a buyer from a confectionery industry boasted that his product contained a good amount of hazelnuts from the Langhe,
BUT WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?
It’s like a Barolo producer coming to me and telling me that in his bottle there is also a quota of wine in cartons. but the rest is Barolo’.
Conclusion: why doesn’t Ferrero take an example from Barilla which produces pasta with 100% Italian wheat?
Ferrero could differentiate: Italian and non-Italian products. And the environmental problem, years after this article was first written, remains.
Read also : Small Piedmontese hazelnut growers on the price of hazelnuts conditioned by Ferrero or see below, below.
