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Hazelnuts: How organic dwindles into conventional

October 5, 2017 at 1:28 PM , Starry Night Ltd.
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SOFIA. The hazelnut is one of the locally grown nuts with immeasurable market potential. Farmers focus on organic cultivation.

BULGARIA. The smaller orchards, having realized a few metric tons of hazelnuts this season, are already selling. Since the organic hazelnut is offered in meager quantities on the local market, on the background of a growing local demand, some orchards set a price of as high as 12.50 EUR/kg EXW. Even at such a price, the kernel is easily bought out by individual customers. Usually, organically offered nuts – certificate provided – are quickly sold out before Christmas, as during December’s celebration days, prices increase.

Hazelnuts: Allocation of cultivated land in the past happened randomly

According to a farmer, this year she would bring on the market more conventional hazelnuts not because she had sprayed the bushes earlier in the season, but because farmers, whose fields are close to hers, sprayed their crops. There is a slip contamination issue and the laboratory tests find some substances that could not qualify a nut as organic.

Yet, prices of such conventionally delivered-on-the-market nuts are still higher, in comparison with their imported counterparts, by as much as 2.50 – 3.50 EUR/kg sometimes! That is why hazelnuts, which are sold as conventional, are termed so because nearby farmers of other crops, which get sprayed during the season, influence the laboratory test results of hazelnuts.

Those farmers, who in the past few years started cultivating orchards specifically for organic nuts, chose their land carefully. However, it takes several years, before the bush could realize its full yield potential. Anyhow, the country is heading towards a substantial increase in the output in the years to come because more acreages are cultivated.

Organic hazelnuts, Bulgaria

Type

EUR/kg

in shell

3.60

natural kernels 9-11

11.22

natural kernels 11-13

11.22

natural kernels 13-15

11.22

EXW Bulgaria

 

 

 

 Hazelnuts, Bulgaria

 

Type

EUR/kg

in shell

2.60

natural kernels 9-11

8.20

natural kernels 11-13

8.20

natural kernels 13-15

8.20

EXW Bulgaria

 

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