In addition to supplying cocoa, espresso, dairy and spices, the corporate (the brand new working group born out of Olam) is the primary provider of all seven main nuts and the world’s largest unbiased hazelnut provider. Such is its scope, it claims to produce sufficient hazelnuts to make 673 million jars of hazelnut unfold yearly.
From ofi’s sourcing and processing operations in Turkey (which accounts for practically three-quarters of worldwide manufacturing) its hazelnuts are exported all around the world as an ingredient in varied candy and savoury merchandise from chocolate and pralines, to spreads and oils. Doing so requires an intensive vary of nuts and flavours in personalized codecs (together with pure, blanched, sliced, diced, slivered, roasted, natural, paste and oil) to accommodate fashionable client preferences.
The Singapore-based firm is due to this fact assured it’s properly positioned to capitalise on the ‘well being halo’ loved by nuts amongst finish shoppers because of excessive quantities of unsaturated fat, fibre, calcium, iron potassium and protein. Nuts may help entrance of pack labelling too. Diet-based schemes akin to Nutri-Rating contemplate nuts as having a constructive affect on the general dietary rating. There may be additionally a possibility to make use of them in savoury snacks within the UK, resulting from their exemption from the nation’s HFSS regulation.
Heath and indulgence
Crucially, although, nuts can present each well being and indulgence, and the significance of the hazelnut is linked to chocolate and confectionery, the place it dominates the class and is the highest flavour for launches in Europe. Ofi is busy unleashing sensory and practical advantages to new or present merchandise. It sees basic mixtures like chocolate and hazelnut evolving to incorporate additional flavour notes, like salt or spice. Consider a bar with scorching honey coated hazelnuts, for instance.
Thrilling as one of these innovation is, three quarters of hazelnut manufacturing is for the chocolate class, stated Swaroop Joshi, ofi Vice President, Gross sales and Advertising. Classes like ice cream, muesli, protein powder, nut milks are all ‘slowly rising’ he stated “however right this moment the business continues to be depending on the chocolate confectionary consumption”.
Creating market development key
The corporate has noticed regular annual hazelnut consumption development of round 4-5% development in the previous couple of years. The corporate is now eager to use the large development potential it sees within the chocolate class in growing markets. “I come from India myself and the primary time I noticed a hazelnut was once I was in mid 20s,” revealed Joshi. “I did not know there was one thing known as a hazelnut which is made right into a paste and added to chocolate unfold.”
He expects development in chocolate and hazelnut consumption to speed up as shoppers in growing markets uncover a style for it. Europeans sometimes eat 6-7 kilos of chocolate a 12 months, he claimed. In China, that quantity is at the moment simply 100 grammes. “In markets like China, India, Brazil, Pakistan – that’s the place the expansion will come.”
There additionally development potential for hazelnuts within the snacking class, he stated. In Turkey, for instance, it’s common to see salted or caramel hazelnut eaten as a snack.
“Throughout many of the globe you’ve got not seen hazels on the snack shelf together with cashews and peanuts and almonds,” he famous. “We consider that is an unexplored market and we are attempting to make some inroads into that to see if that may be explored higher.”
