Technology and hazelnuts, a love affair?

We, as Turkish people, are very proud of our hazelnuts. We are the biggest producers and we believe we produce the best quality. At least that's what I thought up until yesterday.

First, let's examine what we earn from hazelnuts. According to state-run Anadolu Agency, last year Turkey earned revenues worth nearly $2 billion from nut exports, quoting Edip Sevinç, the head of the Black Sea Hazelnut and Products Exporters' Association, as saying. Sevinç said last year Turkish exporters earned $1.98 billion from 227,556 tons of hazelnut exports, mainly to Italy, France and Germany, which have robust food industries to process the nuts.

As the value of the Turkish Lira recently dropped sharply against the U.S. dollar, making Turkish goods much cheaper for customers abroad, Turkey's revenues from hazelnut exports fell since the previous year, though the export volume did not show a substantial change. Sevinç said the Turkish hazelnut industry earned around $2.83 billion from hazelnut exports in 2015 from 240,137 tons shipped.

One of the biggest buyers of Turkish hazelnuts is Ferrero. The exchange that I made with them changed my outlook on Turkish agriculture, especially nuts production. I learned that we might be the biggest producer but we are far from being the most efficient. 

Ferrero Hazelnut chief Stefano Gagliasso underscored that Turkey is by far the largest hazelnut producer in the world. "However, based on the production per decare statistics, Turkey's productivity is comparatively low. We observed that the decrease in hazelnut exports in the last two years is due to increasing competition of other producing countries," he added.  

Gagliasso emphasized that good agricultural practices and mechanization directly improve...