Prices grow as orchards wither in Georgia’s hazelnut sector
Global shortages are pushing hazelnut prices to record highs — just as Georgian orchards face one of their worst disease outbreaks in years.
Georgia is having one of its strongest hazelnut export seasons in recent memory. Prices are soaring, demand from Europe is solid, and farmers are seeing unusually high returns. Between August and late September alone, the country exported around three thousand tons of hazelnuts worth roughly $25 million—with Italy, Germany, and Spain dominating the buyer list.
But beneath the headline numbers is a more complicated story: one in which bumper prices coexist with shrinking harvests, spreading disease and growing concern among producers.
High prices, lower harvests
Export prices for both Turkish and Georgian hazelnuts have nearly doubled compared to last year, driven by global shortages and reduced yields in competing countries. Signs of this dynamic were already evident last season. In 2024, Georgia exported 8,806 tons of hazelnuts worth $56.1 million — a 7.2% increase in value, despite a 20.9% drop in volume. The average export price climbed dramatically, from $4.69/kg in 2023 to $6.37/kg in 2024.
Analysts attribute this surge to global shortages, reduced harvests in competing countries, and continued strong European demand. Turkey, the world’s largest hazelnut producer, saw an estimated 40% of its orchards affected by a severe insect-related disease — a shock that pushed prices upward worldwide. Georgian producers have benefited directly.
Hazelnut pricing depends heavily on kernel yield after cracking. This year, cracked hazelnuts are selling for around GEL 30/kg, while high-quality in-shell nuts command GEL 12–13/kg. Lower quality nuts fetch only GEL 2–3/kg. A 40% kernel yield is considered strong: “If a farmer cracks hazelnuts at least three times, the yield will be 40–43%, and they can get a good price —around GEL 12–13 per kilo,” says Chairman of the Georgian Hazelnut Producers Association Merab Chitanava.
A fast-spreading disease threatens orchards
Yet high prices have not eased the sector’s underlying vulnerabilities. After years spent fighting the Asian brown marmorated stink bug, hazelnut growers in western Georgia are now battling a new and fast-spreading bacterial disease that is causing trees to dry up rapidly.
The problem, now in its third year, is accelerating. Chitanava says his own orchards in Samegrelo illustrate the scale of the damage: last year 10–15% of his trees dried up; this year it is nearly half.
According to the Georgian Hazelnut Producers Association, around 10% of hazelnut plots in western Georgia—roughly 7,000 hectares—have already been affected, with trees turning yellow in midsummer and losing their leaves within days. Early research by state and international experts has pointed to a combination of bacterial and fungal pathogens, a complex diagnosis that makes treatment more challenging. The disease spreads easily through contact, pruning tools, and cultivation work.
Experts recommend multiple annual treatments with copper-based formulations, but aggressive disease management is expensive and labor-intensive, particularly for small family farms.
Subsidies help — but fall short
The government’s GEL 500-per-hectare subsidy for orchard care is now in its third year, but producers say it falls far short of the actual cost of proper maintenance.
“You have to spray at least five times a year to get a good harvest,” says Marina Chikhladze, who owns a small hazelnut orchard in Guria. “The subsidy is not enough,” she asserts, estimating costs closer to GEL 1,300–1,500 per hectare.
For many smaller growers in Samegrelo, Guria, Kakheti, and Abkhazia’s Gali district, the financial gap is only part of the problem. Access to modern agronomic knowledge remains uneven, and outdated practices continue to limit yields.
For more than a decade, USAID played a major role in addressing these gaps — providing technical support, training programs, equipment upgrades and pest-management initiatives. Its withdrawal has left a critical gap in sector support.
Compounding these structural pressures, growers faced yet another challenge this season: despite expectations of a strong harvest, a two-week delay pushed harvesting into a rainy period, reducing both yield and quality by around 10% compared to last year.
Short-term windfall, long-term uncertainty
For now, global shortages are cushioning Georgia’s hazelnut sector from the worst effects of declining harvests. Higher prices are propping up farmer incomes even as orchards shrink.
Yet many in the sector warn that these gains rest on fragile ground. Without stronger disease-control measures, upgraded extension services and long-term research investment, Georgia risks losing a sizable share of its orchards—and its role as a reliable supplier for European buyers.
Hazelnuts remain one of the country’s top agricultural exports. But as farmers navigate the uneasy mix of rising prices and shrinking yields, the sector is increasingly shaped by a sharp paradox—short-term profit overshadowed by long-term risk.