Ferrero, the historic chocolate company owned by Italy’s richest family, is in talks with the government of Azerbaijan over the cultivation of hazelnuts in the country. Azerbaijan’s Agriculture Minister Heydar Asadov has received Daniel Dellapacha, the coordinator for agricultural business at Ferrero, for talks.
The company is a major user of hazelnuts in products such as Ferrero Rocher, Nutella and Kinder Bueno. It already owns the world’s largest hazelnut producer, Turkey’s Oltan Group. Turkey is by far the world’s largest producer of hazelnuts with a market share of around 75 percent. Azerbaijan has a market share of only around 4 percent but has ambitions to increase production through a package of incentives that include state grants and preferential loans to hazelnut producers and the distribution of hazelnut seeds to farmers free of charge.
