2023-10-21 10:46:21
The heat unusual of the monthOctober has slowed down what, in general, has been a good one hazelnut harvest to them Girona counties. The even it has not affected this fruit, as the amount of water it needs is low. In fact, just a “water support point” at the root of the trunk is enough, but the heat did “hurt”. The president of Avellana de Brunyola Girona counties, Albert Horta, explains that “what the tree wants is cold and frost and not be at 30 degrees in October”. This has caused the quality of some hazelnuts to suffer and they have ended up being discarded. All in all, Horta is satisfied with how the harvest has gone, but regrets the difficulties they have in being able to sell the product at a “fair price”.
some 1,000 tons of hazelnuts have been collected this year in the regions of Girona. The vast majority will be consumed in Catalonia, either toasted, without toasting or as a base for other preparations such as hazelnut cream or even nougat. This year’s harvest was not bad, although the heat episode at the beginning of October did not help and some fruits had to be discarded. The problem is that the top of the tree suffers especially with the high temperatures and ends up getting damaged.
On the contrary, the spring rains lasted until the end of June and this made it possible to keep the heat at bay and therefore favor a good production. And drought is not a problem for the hazelnut, since it is a fruit that does not need a large amount of water. Horta explains that just one point of support at the base during the month of August was enough.
Although they are happy with the amount of hazelnuts that have been collected, the sector makes it clear that “it could have been better” if not with more moderate temperatures and without such “extreme” heat. “If it hadn’t reached 40 degrees so many times, it would certainly have been even better, but in general we are satisfied,” he points out.
The hazelnut harvest ends at the beginning of November. Once selected through a machine that chooses each specimen, those that will not be used are discarded and the good ones are kept in large sacks waiting to know where they will be destined.
Sell at a fair price
One of the main problems encountered by the sector is the difficulty to sell at a fair price a product that, they remember is from a lot of quality i of proximity. In this sense, Horta explains that the price they sell it – around two euros per kilo– it’s “pretty ridiculous” and they’re always fighting to try to get it up and make a better living out of it.
And the reality is that despite the fact that even if the productions are not very high, it “costs a lot” for the distribution chains to pay more for the hazelnuts, since what they are looking for is to make a “very high” profit margin. This directly affects the farmer who is forced to sell at a very low price if he does not want to have to “throw the product”.
To try to remedy this situation, some producers propose initiatives to group and form their own companies. It is the case of Nuasetsmade up of four farmers and which is dedicated to distributing the hazelnuts they produce, but also has a workshop to make all kinds of products, from hazelnuts with cloves, other toasted ones, but also creams, pastes or nougat hazelnut
Horta explains that in this way they can earn a little more for a high-quality product and that they consume, among others, restaurants such as El Celler de Can Roca o pastries recognized from the Girona counties.
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