Walnut production in Serbia meets less than a half of local needs – Hazelnuts more interesting due to the confectionery industry

Serbia has over 1.9 million walnut trees across the surface of over a 4,800 hectares, and the annual crops, according to the data by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia, are between 14,000 and 23,000 tons. Experts believe that this doesn't meet even half the needs of the country, which is why this fruit is often imported, even though the local climate is favorable for its production.

- Our farmers are not too interested in producing walnuts, since this culture requires bigger investments and a longer period of exploitation until the peak yield. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia (CCIS) and our Association have not noticed much interest in this subject, but on the other hand, the interest in growing hazelnuts is somewhat bigger. One of the reasons for this is that the confectionery industry finds hazelnuts very interesting – says Milada Lukesevic from the Association of Agriculture, Food Industry, Forestry and Water Management of CCIS for eKapija.

She reminds that certain big world companies have shown interest in buying out, even producing hazelnuts in Serbia. As well, the importing of hazelnuts to Serbia is larger that the importing of walnuts, and it also reaches higher prices in the market, which is what makes it more interesting to producers.

By the way, according to Agroklub data, China is the biggest walnut producer in the world. Reight behind China is the USA, where up to 90% of walnuts come from California. The well-known world producers include Iran, Turkey and the Ukraine. When it comes to the European market, it is estimated that currently, there's a deficit of as much as 100,000 tons.