Crop offers bright spot in struggling agriculture industry

By MITCH LIES

Capital Press

McMINNVILLE, Ore. -- Oregon hazelnut growers are poised for what could be a second consecutive profitable year, said Mike Klein, manager of the Hazelnut Growers Bargaining Association of Oregon.

"We have a good crop in the trees in Oregon this year, and there is a moderate crop elsewhere," Klein told growers Aug. 4 at the annual summer tour of the Nut Growers Society of Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. "I think the market can handle that without a major disruption in price."

Oregon growers last year pulled about 80 cents a pound for hazelnuts, 15 cents above the cost of production.

The crop was one of the few bright spots in Oregon agriculture in 2009.

Klein reported Aug. 4 that world crop estimates are up -- but not substantially. Carryover stocks, meanwhile, are about half of last year's 60,000 metric tons.

Oregon's crop is estimated at between 35,000 and 40,000 tons.

Klein said world supplies are expected to reach 930,000 metric tons this fall, far more than last year but well below 2008 when Turkey alone put nearly 900,000 tons of hazelnuts into the market.

Turkey, the world's biggest hazelnut producer, is projected to harvest 630,000 metric tons this year, up from 450,000 metric tons in 2009. Italy's harvest is projected at 100,000 tons, up from 85,000 in 2009.

Georgia and Azerbaijan's harvest is projected at 85,000, up from 57,000 in 2009. And Spain's 2010 crop is estimated at 24,000 tons, up from 18,000 in 2009.

Klein ended his report by urging Oregon growers to continue supporting the industry's annual crop estimate survey.

"We need to continue to produce statistically accurate crop estimates," Klein said.

"It's impossible to make good marketing decisions early in the year unless you have an idea of what you have," he said.

Klein said the survey costs growers less than $1 a ton.

Klein's comments were in response to an industry proposal to discontinue funding the survey and replace it with an informal poll of growers.

Oregon's hazelnut survey, conducted each August by the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, estimates crop size by counting and cracking nuts from the same tree limbs in several Willamette Valley hazelnut orchards year after year.

The NASS estimate typically is within 10 percentage points of Oregon's harvest.