Hazelnut growers accept three-tiered initial prices

Capital Press File

Hazelnuts fill a bin at Aman Farms. Oregon producers have agreed to the three-tiered pricing system that will range from 62 cents to 91 cents per pound.

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Minimum initial prices for Oregon hazelnuts will range from 62 cents to 91 cents per pound this year under a new tiered pricing system.

Those prices are all down from last year’s initial level of 96.5 cents per pound and the 2016 initial price of $1.18 per pound.

The downward pressure on prices in 2018 is due to significantly increased tariffs on hazelnuts in China — a major market for Oregon’s crop — as well as a devalued currency in Turkey, which has effectively reduced prices for hazelnuts from the world’s predominant producer.

The Oregon Hazelnut Bargaining Association, which negotiates prices with processors, agreed to the three-tiered system on Oct. 2, partly to encourage planting of high “shell-out” varieties, such as Casina, McDonald and Sacajawea, which have a higher proportion of kernel within the nut and will earn at least 91 cents per pound this year.

Mid-shell-out cultivars, including Lewis, Willamette, Santiam, Dorris, Yamhill, Clark and Wepster, will receive at least 81 cents per pound.

In-shell varieties such as Jefferson and Barcelona, which have a relatively low ratio of kernel to shell, will earn at least 62 cents per pound.

“We’ve been talking as an industry about separating out the kernel varieties and the in-shell varieties for a few years now,” said Terry Ross, executive director of the bargaining association.

Though in-shell hazelnuts headed to China will continue to be important to the industry, growers have enough of those cultivars planted to supply future needs, he said.

Meanwhile, more kernel varieties will need to go in the ground to meet kernel demand among candy producers and other food manufacturers, Ross said.

“The kernel markets are going to be a greater focus as the industry grows,” he said.

While the effect of Chinese retaliatory tariffs and the devalued Turkish lira were “devastating,” there’s still a possibility of an “upside” for growers when final prices are established next spring, he said.

“The markets were frozen and we needed to set a floor to thaw the markets,” Ross said.

Recent progress in trade deals with Canada and Mexico has made the industry optimistic about trade negotiations elsewhere, he said. “We’re hoping that will continue with China.”

Barcelona trees were long the “staple” of Oregon’s hazelnut industry but were susceptible to Eastern Filbert Blight, a fungal pathogen, and have often been replaced with Jefferson, another in-shell variety resistant to the disease, said Garry Rodakowski, a farmer near Vida, Ore., and chairman of the Oregon Hazelnut Commission.

“There’s not going to be any profit made there,” Rodakowski said of the initial prices for in-shell cultivars. “It isn’t the first time I haven’t made money. That’s farming. Anybody in production agriculture knows you can’t control price.”

To deal with the lower prices, Rodakowski said he will likely reduce nitrogen fertilizer applications and apply a less expensive fungicide to his orchards.

“Everybody’s management practices are going to need to change a little bit,” he said.

All the same, Rodakowski doesn’t expect growers who’ve made a deposit on new trees and prepared fields for planting will pull back on new orchards due to this year’s price slump.

There’s still a “bright future” for hazelnuts over the coming decades, so the short-term problems in China and Turkey aren’t going to affect long-term planting decisions, he said.

“You’re looking out farther in advance than that,” Rodakowski said. “That can be cleared up within a year.”

http://www.capitalpress.com/Orchards/20181002/hazelnut-growers-accept-three-tiered-initial-prices

October 11, 2018

Nestled along the Santa Barbara coastline, the rich, alluvial soil and the south facing slopes provide the perfect backdrop for over 5000 organic olive trees.

In 1851, John Emile Goux came to the area in search of a Mediterranean climate where his native olives and grapes would thrive. He planted the first olive orchard and today great, great grandson Craig Makela and his family carry on the tradition with California Coast Naturals organic olives.

California’s only organic olive orchard in Santa Barbara, CA.

Working with wife Cindy, the Makela’s starting packing olives in their garage in 1982. Buying olives from west coast suppliers, they created the well-known Santa Barbara Olive Company brand.

In 1990 they purchased their own 17 acres ranch, and soon after began the organic certification process. “It wasn’t an epiphany at the time, I just grew up a surfer and I stopped eating meat. It just seemed like the healthy natural thing to do. It was simpler not to use a lot of pesticides and fertilizers, Makela said. “Olives don’t have many issues with pests and the ones we do have are easily controlled with organic materials.”

Over the years the husband and wife duo built the Santa Barbara Olive Company Brand into the nation’s number one selling specialty olive brand. In 2009, they sold the brand to the Krinos Greek Olive Company, which continues to use the mark on Greek and Spanish Olives repacked in the states.

They sold the brand but never sold their land. It was their son Chad who brought up the concept of offering both organic and conventionally US grown olives as a way to differentiate the company.

Today as California Coast Naturals, they are selling organically grown in America olives in farmers markets and to retailers across the country.

The Makela family of California Coast Naturals.

“We have grown significantly in the past three years and are in over 2000 stores, like Walmart, Lassen’s, Lazy Acres, – really all over California,” Makela said

Consumer education is a key component of the growth curve, as virtually all glass packed olives in the U.S. market come from either Europe or South America. “There are virtually no American olive brands that exclusively sell only U.S. olives. When we tell retailers that they usually say, ‘We have to carry this American product.” he said.

California Coast Naturals organic olives are hand harvested and either sun-dried or cured in a traditional salt brine. The company’s extra virgin olive oil is pressed on site the same day as harvest. Makela noted his olives are comparable in price to imported olive products, with all of his organic olives harvested, and packed on the 100 acres of tress under cultivation.