> poor harvest and infestation of brown marmorated stink bug drove up prices
Holy cow, I live in central europe and the amount of these bugs this year has been insane,
I find a dozen of these per day in my apartment.
I fear we should have started some eradication effort years ago and it's already too late, these bugs feed on a bunch of crops, and will damage yields massively.
Growing hazelnuts is labor-intensive, back-breaking work in Turkey's northern (Black Sea) coast. It's also a key part of the rural economy of the region.
Back in August, the Odd Lots Podcast had a good show about speculation in hazelnuts.
As I recall, Ferrero buys like 25% of the world's hazelnut supply.
Ferrero used a quater of the world hazelnut production (they have been starting up their own orchards too).
Turkey is the largest producer (2/3 of the global supply), and is accessible without import fees due to customs union with the EU, so it can't be replaced easily.
With Ferrero purchasing a quarter of the world's hazelnuts, and Turkey producing 650k tonnes, which is about 2/3rds of the world, that means that even if Ferrero was already sourcing from different countries, that means dropping Turkey as a source would leave Ferrero with a total purchase of about 230 tonnes.
With Georgia producing about 37k tonnes, they'd need to buy everything and also the entire US and European supply. In practice, they'll probably already be purchasing from those countries so they'd need to seek out even more sources, maybe build their own overseas farms to compensate.
There is no real alternative to importing from Turkey.
With Fererro buying up a quarter of the world's supply in hazelnuts and two thirds of the world's supply coming out of Turkey, I think a lot of farmers won't have the money to make their own spreads if they lose the Italians as a customer.
Have you heard of Ülker? Turkish brand that's way cheaper and less oilier than Nutella. If Turkey decided to cut down Nutella's hazelnut supply, there would be short term pain for the Turkish farmers but only until Ülker covers for their demand. Meanwhile Nutella would be sent scampering to reneg across its entire supply chain.
The taste of their food and the beauty of their women made the British the greatest sailors the world has ever known. Though to be fair the part about the beauty is no longer true.
I’m not sure if you're being ironic or not, since ‘regional taste preferences’ is a somewhat famous excuse brands frequently use to justify selling inferior-quality products (think less meat, less nuts, less fruit, more unhealthy filler) under the same name in different parts of Europe. I recall it being a major topic in our elections several years back, but I don't think anyone has really done anything about it.
It's something that does certainly happen, but regional preferences are just as real. For instance, the amount of juice in Fanta across Europe doesn't seem to correlate with wealth at all. Even the sugar contents vary wildly, even across eastern Europe.
For Nutella specifically, there are also differences in composition between the more wealthy European nations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXp2MTWNoZ4 According to that report, the texture is different to accommodate for the differences in common bread types, which makes a lot of sense IMO.
With how little actual hazelnut goes into a jar of Nutella compared to palm oil and sugar that make up most of the spread, I doubt Ferrero is saving a lot of money selling inferior product to poorer countries. With expensive goods such as meat and "pretty" vegetables, there's more money to be made.
'inferior-quality products' is something companies resort to to keep their profits higher, saying the purchasing power, and local nutrition standards differ between different markets.I bought instant coffee from a shop and later regret it that because the taste was very bad, and noticed that the label displayed an Eastern European language.The same happened before with children foods and many other products.Now there is a very interesting thing happening in Turkey with their dire financial situation, you could be any digital product cheaper than anywhere else, from ms office to Netflix subscription to even iPhone. That is surely readjustments for purchasing power.
Coming from soviet union trash a lot of foreign products were god sent. Of course for many point of reference was farmers markets so decline must’ve been apparent too.
In my circles such mutterings would be seem as populism and woowoo crap.
> Coca-Cola, whose drink in Slovenian stores was found by researchers there to contain more sugar and more syrup than that sold in Austria, responded by saying it adapted its recipe to local tastes.
In other words, Slovenia gets a better deal on Coca Cola but a worse deal on strawberry yogurt. Without more direct counter examples, that only seems to validate the claims made by manufacturers.
While there is plenty of proof that some companies are selling inferior products of their name-brand product in poorer countries, that doesn't mean a difference in taste automatically means it's part of some big conspiracy. Local preferences do actually differ and companies that don't account for that only stand to lose customers.
Inferior quality makes total sense as buying power is far lower over there. And it doesn’t really matter for brand loyalty since most shoppers can’t compare with foreign imports.
For sweetness I find easterners prefer less sweetness.
Funny how those taste preferences are common for all of the countries behind the iron curtain. And somehow those preferences can be roughly summarized with less cocoa and less hazelnuts. Which are by coincidence the expensive ingredients.
The difference between American and European Nutella seems to have been documented in a lot of detail, but I can't find any sources on the differences within Europe. I have found videos about the differences between German and French Nutella, and French and Italian Nutella, but nothing more than that.
I think a combination of bad cocoa harvest and previously a bad hazelnut harvest have altered recipes globally to be more sugar and fat and even less cocoa and hazelnut, but it's hard to find any recent comparisons.
Maybe you have a link? I don't speak any languages from behind the Iron Curtain where the impact is probably the most obvious, so I would appreciate a good link.
Is it just me or did nutella go from almost solid to much more fluid about 5 years ago? And it got slightly darker? Anybody know what happened? The texture definitely changed.
there was a big controversy in Germany that Nutella changed its recipe round about the time you are saying. I noticed myself that Nutella tasted worse (and thus quit eating it). You could see on the ingredients list that the order changed, and since the ordering is always from highest amount to lowest amount it was clear that the recipe changed (I think sugar was on spot 1 aftewards but not before? Not sure). You could probably find articles about it...
The biggest change was about 10 years ago, when the percentage of hazelnut in Nutella dropped from 17% to 13%. I think after that they tweaked the oil to sugar ratios a bit, but noting so serious that I noticed since then.
I'm surprised they haven't cut back on the chocolate contents in their spread considering the extreme price jump chocolate went through after the last cocoa harvest went terrible.
It's odd that a publication like the Financial Times can't be bothered to use the correct name of the country, which is Türkiye and has been officially since 2022, per the UN.
Less rigor might be expected from a less erudite magazine, but these folks should know better.
The name for the country Turkey is derived (via Old French Turquie) from the Medieval Latin Turchia, Turquia, from Medieval Greek Τουρκία, itself being Τούρκος (borrowed into Latin as Turcus, 'A Turk, Turkish'). It is first recorded in Middle English (as Turkye, Torke, later Turkie, Turky), attested in Chaucer, c. 1369. The Ottoman Empire was commonly referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its contemporaries. The word ultimately originates from the autonym Türk, first recorded in the Bugut inscription (as in its plural form türküt) and the Hüis Tolgoi Inscription (as türǖg) of the 6th century, and later, in the Orkhon inscriptions and the Tariat inscriptions (as both türük and türk) (𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜) of the 8th century.
In 2022, the Turkish government requested the United Nations and other international organizations to use Türkiye officially in English, to which they agreed.[1][2] Turkey has remained the common and conventional name in the English language.
Turks can't force language usage -least of all English which does not have a governing body. It's like demanding they obey native language spellings for any number of countries. Go ahead, demand that Turkey spell China using hanzi. It's ludicrous. It's like Spain asking English speakers to spelll Spain "Espanna" (but using a tilde on one of the ens and removing the second en.)
Hazelnut politics are a big deal in Europe [0].
[0] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/06/09/how-a-hazelnut... (archive link: https://archive.is/1UTf3)
> poor harvest and infestation of brown marmorated stink bug drove up prices
Holy cow, I live in central europe and the amount of these bugs this year has been insane, I find a dozen of these per day in my apartment.
I fear we should have started some eradication effort years ago and it's already too late, these bugs feed on a bunch of crops, and will damage yields massively.
Growing hazelnuts is labor-intensive, back-breaking work in Turkey's northern (Black Sea) coast. It's also a key part of the rural economy of the region.
Back in August, the Odd Lots Podcast had a good show about speculation in hazelnuts. As I recall, Ferrero buys like 25% of the world's hazelnut supply.
Purchase from Georgia etc. instead. No need to feed Turks' economy.
Ferrero used a quater of the world hazelnut production (they have been starting up their own orchards too).
Turkey is the largest producer (2/3 of the global supply), and is accessible without import fees due to customs union with the EU, so it can't be replaced easily.
According to this map (https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/hazelnut-...), Georgia doesn't come close to producing enough hazelnuts to compensate for the difference.
With Ferrero purchasing a quarter of the world's hazelnuts, and Turkey producing 650k tonnes, which is about 2/3rds of the world, that means that even if Ferrero was already sourcing from different countries, that means dropping Turkey as a source would leave Ferrero with a total purchase of about 230 tonnes.
With Georgia producing about 37k tonnes, they'd need to buy everything and also the entire US and European supply. In practice, they'll probably already be purchasing from those countries so they'd need to seek out even more sources, maybe build their own overseas farms to compensate.
There is no real alternative to importing from Turkey.
> No need to feed Turks' economy.
Any special reason?
I would say stop buying from Georgia, stops the funding of Putin's puppets in their government.
The Turkish nut dealers will cave in first once their pantry at home runs out of Nutella.
We have a lot of local alternatives, some with better taste and better ingredients (e.g.: no palm oil).
On the other hand, the nut dealers can make theirs at home if they want to.
With Fererro buying up a quarter of the world's supply in hazelnuts and two thirds of the world's supply coming out of Turkey, I think a lot of farmers won't have the money to make their own spreads if they lose the Italians as a customer.
We have other companies which buy the supply, too.
So, IDK ;)
P.S.: As farmers need money, Ferrero needs the nuts. It's complicated.
Have you heard of Ülker? Turkish brand that's way cheaper and less oilier than Nutella. If Turkey decided to cut down Nutella's hazelnut supply, there would be short term pain for the Turkish farmers but only until Ülker covers for their demand. Meanwhile Nutella would be sent scampering to reneg across its entire supply chain.
all they have to do is add more sugar to make up for the missing hazelnut
They already do. Compare the Nutella made in Poland to the one in Germany.
Usually Poland ends up worse off, but I would like to let you know that the Magnum ice-cream quality is much superior in Poland compared to the UK.
The taste of their food and the beauty of their women made the British the greatest sailors the world has ever known. Though to be fair the part about the beauty is no longer true.
Regional taste preferences IMO.
I’m not sure if you're being ironic or not, since ‘regional taste preferences’ is a somewhat famous excuse brands frequently use to justify selling inferior-quality products (think less meat, less nuts, less fruit, more unhealthy filler) under the same name in different parts of Europe. I recall it being a major topic in our elections several years back, but I don't think anyone has really done anything about it.
It's something that does certainly happen, but regional preferences are just as real. For instance, the amount of juice in Fanta across Europe doesn't seem to correlate with wealth at all. Even the sugar contents vary wildly, even across eastern Europe.
For Nutella specifically, there are also differences in composition between the more wealthy European nations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXp2MTWNoZ4 According to that report, the texture is different to accommodate for the differences in common bread types, which makes a lot of sense IMO.
With how little actual hazelnut goes into a jar of Nutella compared to palm oil and sugar that make up most of the spread, I doubt Ferrero is saving a lot of money selling inferior product to poorer countries. With expensive goods such as meat and "pretty" vegetables, there's more money to be made.
'inferior-quality products' is something companies resort to to keep their profits higher, saying the purchasing power, and local nutrition standards differ between different markets.I bought instant coffee from a shop and later regret it that because the taste was very bad, and noticed that the label displayed an Eastern European language.The same happened before with children foods and many other products.Now there is a very interesting thing happening in Turkey with their dire financial situation, you could be any digital product cheaper than anywhere else, from ms office to Netflix subscription to even iPhone. That is surely readjustments for purchasing power.
Coming from soviet union trash a lot of foreign products were god sent. Of course for many point of reference was farmers markets so decline must’ve been apparent too.
In my circles such mutterings would be seem as populism and woowoo crap.
How much weight does your "IMO" carry?
https://www.nhh.no/en/research-centres/food/food-news/2017/s...
That article also states:
> Coca-Cola, whose drink in Slovenian stores was found by researchers there to contain more sugar and more syrup than that sold in Austria, responded by saying it adapted its recipe to local tastes.
In other words, Slovenia gets a better deal on Coca Cola but a worse deal on strawberry yogurt. Without more direct counter examples, that only seems to validate the claims made by manufacturers.
While there is plenty of proof that some companies are selling inferior products of their name-brand product in poorer countries, that doesn't mean a difference in taste automatically means it's part of some big conspiracy. Local preferences do actually differ and companies that don't account for that only stand to lose customers.
Inferior quality makes total sense as buying power is far lower over there. And it doesn’t really matter for brand loyalty since most shoppers can’t compare with foreign imports.
For sweetness I find easterners prefer less sweetness.
Funny how those taste preferences are common for all of the countries behind the iron curtain. And somehow those preferences can be roughly summarized with less cocoa and less hazelnuts. Which are by coincidence the expensive ingredients.
The difference between American and European Nutella seems to have been documented in a lot of detail, but I can't find any sources on the differences within Europe. I have found videos about the differences between German and French Nutella, and French and Italian Nutella, but nothing more than that.
I think a combination of bad cocoa harvest and previously a bad hazelnut harvest have altered recipes globally to be more sugar and fat and even less cocoa and hazelnut, but it's hard to find any recent comparisons.
Maybe you have a link? I don't speak any languages from behind the Iron Curtain where the impact is probably the most obvious, so I would appreciate a good link.
Im from behind the iron curtain, but lived outside for most of my life now.
My impression is opposite - Lithuanians find western sweets too sweet and drinks there contain less sugar.
Is it just me or did nutella go from almost solid to much more fluid about 5 years ago? And it got slightly darker? Anybody know what happened? The texture definitely changed.
there was a big controversy in Germany that Nutella changed its recipe round about the time you are saying. I noticed myself that Nutella tasted worse (and thus quit eating it). You could see on the ingredients list that the order changed, and since the ordering is always from highest amount to lowest amount it was clear that the recipe changed (I think sugar was on spot 1 aftewards but not before? Not sure). You could probably find articles about it...
The biggest change was about 10 years ago, when the percentage of hazelnut in Nutella dropped from 17% to 13%. I think after that they tweaked the oil to sugar ratios a bit, but noting so serious that I noticed since then.
I'm surprised they haven't cut back on the chocolate contents in their spread considering the extreme price jump chocolate went through after the last cocoa harvest went terrible.
Caramel ? Nutela is 56% sugar and 30% fat.
To be fair that’s a reasonable ingredient set for making caramel.
https://archive.ph/8teI6
Good read, thanks
It's odd that a publication like the Financial Times can't be bothered to use the correct name of the country, which is Türkiye and has been officially since 2022, per the UN.
Less rigor might be expected from a less erudite magazine, but these folks should know better.
>Name of Turkey
The name for the country Turkey is derived (via Old French Turquie) from the Medieval Latin Turchia, Turquia, from Medieval Greek Τουρκία, itself being Τούρκος (borrowed into Latin as Turcus, 'A Turk, Turkish'). It is first recorded in Middle English (as Turkye, Torke, later Turkie, Turky), attested in Chaucer, c. 1369. The Ottoman Empire was commonly referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its contemporaries. The word ultimately originates from the autonym Türk, first recorded in the Bugut inscription (as in its plural form türküt) and the Hüis Tolgoi Inscription (as türǖg) of the 6th century, and later, in the Orkhon inscriptions and the Tariat inscriptions (as both türük and türk) (𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜) of the 8th century.
In 2022, the Turkish government requested the United Nations and other international organizations to use Türkiye officially in English, to which they agreed.[1][2] Turkey has remained the common and conventional name in the English language.
Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_of_Turkey
Most countries don’t use the correct name of Deutschland. Quite a few don’t even use Germany.
Let’s not even mention Netherlands…
> but these folks should know better
I’m 100% sure they know and I assume it was a conscious decision.
Türkiye is the official name in English.
"Turkey" is what most English people would use, which makes it the defacto official name, despite what the UN might say.
Most English people aren't even able to type ü on a keyboard.
English doesn't have umlauts.
>Turkey has remained the common and conventional name in the English language.
Writers in the free countries are not required to follow a naming suggestion by the Turkish government or the UN.
It’s Turkey and literally no one cares.
Turkish gov or UN can’t dictate language
Yep. Just like Kiev.
It clearly is the most pressing matter Turkey is facing
Turks can't force language usage -least of all English which does not have a governing body. It's like demanding they obey native language spellings for any number of countries. Go ahead, demand that Turkey spell China using hanzi. It's ludicrous. It's like Spain asking English speakers to spelll Spain "Espanna" (but using a tilde on one of the ens and removing the second en.)