Not every hazelnut is worthy of the center of a Ferrero Rocher candy, which is increasingly working in the favor of Oregon’s farmers.

An inferior hazelnut will detract from the sensory experience of consuming a Rocher, which is why only the finest specimens are coated in a creamy filling, wafer shell, milk chocolate and chopped nuts, said Marco Botta, general manager of the Ferrero confectionary company.

“That hazelnut has to be perfect,” Botta said.

Flawless nuts

The quest for flawlessness has led Ferrero, which is based in Italy, to the orchards of Oregon, where it’s been buying increasing volumes of hazelnuts for its Rochers and other products.

“That is the clear demonstration of the quality achieved by the production here,” Botta said during a recent visit to the state.

Over the past three years, Ferrero’s purchases of Oregon hazelnuts have doubled, satisfying all the company’s North American demand for the crop in 2025, he said.

“We achieved that result for the first time this year,” Botta said.

The feat is particularly impressive given that it coincided with a steep increase in Ferrero’s North American sales, which in the past six years have grown from $600 million to $3 billion, he said.

“So, we try to accelerate also what we are buying,” Botta said.

Though Ferrero does manufacture other types of sweets, including Tic Tac mints, the company’s celebration of all things hazelnut is what differentiates it from other confectioners, he said.

“At the end of the day, it is an iconic ingredient of many brands in our portfolio,” Botta said.

That dedication to the crop should come as welcome news to Oregon farmers, whose hazelnut acreage has roughly tripled in a decade, especially since Ferrero still has an appetite for more.

As a family-owned company that isn’t subject to quarterly pressures faced by publicly-traded corporations, Ferrero thinks in terms of, “not the next three months but the next 30 years,” Botta said.

Oregon’s hazelnut growers will be key to supporting the company’s strategy of expanding beyond Europe to establish a “second pillar” of revenues in the U.S., he said.

“Our commitment is always for the long term,” Botta said.

Though Oregon is known for having premium hazelnut prices, that’s no problem for Ferrero because the state has also lived up to its reputation for premium quality, said Stefano Gagliasso, the company’s head of agribusiness development.

“The point is to continue the momentum,” he said.

Farmers in the state have made it easy for Ferrero because “there was already a very solid base” of hazelnut production when the company began making in-roads in Oregon roughly twenty years ago, said Matteo Mattei, vice president of institutional affairs and corporate communications.

“The level of professionality is very high,” he said.

To compare, in other regions, the company had to plant model hazelnut orchards to serve as an example for local farmers, Mattei said. “In Chile, we had to introduce hazelnuts from scratch.”

Ferrero isn’t content to simply continue buying hazelnuts from Oregon, however — the company wants to ensure the industry remains healthy here for many years to come, said Botta, its general manager.

To that end, Ferrero has invested about $1.5 million over the past five years in Oregon State University research into reducing chemical usage and battling such pests and diseases as Eastern Filbert Blight and brown marmorated stink bugs, he said.

“When you run a big business, you need stability,” Batto said. “We need to create a dynamic that creates value for everybody.”

Important visit

The recent visit of Ferrero’s top executives to Oregon shows how serious they are about the company’s future in the state, said Larry George, president of the George Packing Co., who hosted the company’s leaders at his company’s processing facility in Donald, Ore.

“They have significantly increased their commitment to Oregon as a source,” George said. “From the industry perspective, this is a great opportunity because Ferrero is paying a lot more attention to Oregon.”

The visit was noteworthy enough that Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and other state government officials made a point of welcoming the Ferrero team to the state at the Donald facility, he said.

Last year, Kotek helped George acquire the processing facility from the Hazelnut Growers of Oregon cooperative, preserving jobs and preventing its closure, with a $600,000 Business Oregon loan, he said.

The money bridged the difference between what George Packing could afford and what the cooperative had to recoup from its investment in the plant, George said.

“We had to get really creative about how we close the gap,” he said. “We wanted to save it for the industry and expand our capacity.”