According to Turkish media outlet Turkish Agri News, Dursun Oguz Gürsoy, head of the board of directors of the Association of Hazelnut and Hazelnut Products Exporters of the Black Sea (KFMIB), said that Turkey's hazelnut season of 2023/24 (Sept. 1, 2023, to Aug. 31, 2024), during which Turkish hazelnuts were sold to 130 countries around the globe, had come to an end and that exports totaled about 303,000 metric tons. Exports totaled about 303,000 metric tons and reached $2.035 billion, an increase of 30.86 percent compared to the 2022/23 season.The 2024/25 season opened on Sept. 1, and the association's export target for the 2024/25 season is more than 300,000 metric tons of hazelnuts, Gürsoy said.

Gürsoy said that the quality of Turkish hazelnuts and Turkish exporters are widely recognized around the world, and that other hazelnut-producing countries with low production and some with poor quality have benefited from these recent negative events.

Data from the Turkish Exporters' Assembly (TIM), which was held in August, showed that Turkey's exports to China rose 11.6 percent year-on-year to $1.8 billion from January to July this year, according to Turkey's Anadolu news agency. Hazelnuts and hazelnut products ranked fifth among the five categories of products with the highest export value from Turkey to China, with an export value of $51.5 million.

The main suppliers of hazelnuts imported into China are Turkey and the U.S., with Turkey mainly supplying shelled hazelnuts and the U.S. supplying shelled hazelnuts. The market shares of the two countries have changed dramatically in the last three years, and Chinese hazelnut imports are shifting to Turkey.

China Customs statistics show that, from January-August 2022, China imported 8,095 tons of unshelled hazelnuts from the U.S., valued at CNY168 million, and 2,508 tons of shelled hazelnuts from Turkey, valued at CNY148 million. In terms of import value, the difference between the two is not very large.

In January-August 2023, China imported 1,276.5 tons of shelled hazelnuts from Turkey, valued at RMB 66.65 million, and 4,414 tons of unshelled hazelnuts from the United States, valued at RMB 52.11 million. But in the first eight months of this year, hazelnut import data changed dramatically . During this period, China imported 3,321 tons of shelled hazelnuts from Turkey, valued at RMB 193 million, and also imported 106 kilograms of unshelled hazelnuts from Turkey, valued at RMB 7,497 yuan. During the same period China imported only 574.5 tons of unshelled hazelnuts from the United States, valued at RMB 8.59 million. Compared to the same period last year, China's imports of shelled hazelnuts from Turkey rose 160 percent in volume and soared 190 percent in value. The U.S. hazelnut exports to China plummeted 87%, and exports fell 83.5%.

The latest U.S. Fruit and Tree Nut Outlook released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that the U.S. has been the world's top exporter of shelled hazelnuts for many years, but exports of shelled hazelnuts have declined by about 35% since the 2020/21 season, from 24,000 metric tons in the 2020/21 season to 15,700 metric tons in the 2023/24 season. During this period, its domestic exports of shelled hazelnut products tripled, from 3,900 tons in the 2020/21 season to 16,200 tons in the 2023/24 season. Nonetheless, the U.S. remains the top exporter of shelled hazelnuts, accounting for more than half of global exports.

In 2023, U.S. hazelnut bearing acreage increased by 12 percent and yield per acre rose by 9 percent, driven by an increase in hazelnut production of about 21.6 percent. Despite the rapid growth in production in 2023, prices received by producers increased by about 4 percent, from $1,300 per ton in 2022 to $1,350 per ton in 2023. Decreased global shelled hazelnut exports from the 2022/23 to 2023/24 seasons (July through June) boosted demand for U.S. exports and drove the recent increase in U.S. hazelnut prices.Hazelnut exports from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Chile declined to varying degrees from the 2022/23 to the 2023/24 seasons, while the Turkish Grain Board increased its official purchase price, both of which also contributed to the upward movement of hazelnut prices.