Nutella

Nutella shortage possible after hazelnut crop wiped out

By Sophia RosenbaumAugust 18, 2014 | 1:28pm

Modal Trigger

Nutella shortage possible after hazelnut crop wiped out

Photo: Shutterstock

Time to stock up!

A Nutella shortage may be on the horizon thanks to a March frost in Turkey that wiped out about 70 percent of this year’s hazelnut crop.

Hazelnut prices have skyrocketed, hitting a 10-year-high and causing many to worry that prices will only continue to increase with the impending shortage.

That’s bad news for Nutella lovers, as one 13-ounce jar of the coma-inducing cocoa spread is packed with 50 hazelnuts.

Ferrero, the Italian chocolatier that produces Nutella, is the largest consumer of hazelnuts. The company acquired the Turkish hazelnut supplier Oltan Group in July to “guarantee and further improve the quality of a leading raw material that gives a unique taste” to its products, Ferrero said in a press release.

It is unclear how the price of Nutella and other hazelnut-ridden products will be affected by the shortage.

http://nypost.com/2014/08/18/nutella-shortage-possible-after-hazelnut-crop-wiped-out/

If you're about to pull a slice of bread out of the toaster and slather on some sweetness, you might want to ease up on the Nutella.

A spike in the price of hazelnuts due to bad weather and disease means the cost of the spread could be about to skyrocket.

Hazelnuts are more popular than ever — high in protein, fibre, vitamins and folate — and many people say they taste delicious when combined with chocolate in a breakfast spread.

But the cost of hazelnuts has soared by more than 60 per cent over the past year, after crop-killing hail storms and frost hit the world's biggest hazelnut producer, Turkey, which controls 70 per cent of the global market.

Even Canada's tiny home-grown supply is in jeopardy, devastated by a disease known as the Eastern Filbert Blight.

With the industry in crisis, Peter Andres, head of the B.C. Hazelnut...