Hazelnut market update

Today we are seeing slightly more interest mainly from smaller buyers who push forward with cover. Many of these companies usually only buy when they have a better view of their customers’ demands otherwise operate on a ‘hand to mouth’ basis. Most major users are now well covered.

Last week the Levant in-shell price has passed the 10 TL level after a long time. The market has been very flat on the Turkish Lira prices since the beginning of this season until New Year.

This brought a comfort zone for all the stakeholders of the supply chain after a very long time. Due to significant demand from Europe for the last 2 weeks, we saw the price being pushed up as supply could not meet.

There are serious quality problems on the Eastern Black Sea region and we are also at the end of supply for Akcakoca hazelnuts which are almost finished; max 5-7% remaining.

For the time being we would expect the market to remain stable with the possibility to increase, producers still hold back just in case of weather problems in the spring.

It seems like TMO is the biggest inventory holder in the market right now and they prefer to wait and see where the price could climb up. The hazelnut prices are still within the budget on EUR basis which explains the ongoing solid demand.