A record US hazelnut crop, almost all of it from Oregon's Willamette Valley, is expected again this year as orchards planted a decade ago reach full production, Capital Press's Kyle Odegard reports from USDA's Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook for September 2026, released on 24 September.

The harvest now under way is forecast at nearly 144,000 tons in-shell, based on preliminary data from a Hazelnut Marketing Board survey. That is 18 percent above the previous record of 121,500 tons in 2025, the first year the crop topped 100,000 tons; in 2019 it was roughly 49,000 tons.

Hazelnut acreage reached a record 92,000 acres in 2025, up 5 percent, and yields rose 20 percent to 1.32 tons an acre. Between 1980 and 2012 Oregon had 20,000 to 29,000 acres of hazelnuts; plantings then surged to about 10,000 acres a year from 2016 to 2018. Because orchards take four or five years to bear commercially and keep gaining for 10 to 12 years, the report says, that wave is now reaching full productive maturity.

Most Oregon hazelnuts are exported. US exports hit a record 78 million pounds on a shelled basis in the 2025-26 marketing year, up 45 percent, driven by shelled nuts, which rose to 73.4 million pounds from 7.8 million in 2020-21. Frost damage in 2025 in Turkey, the world's top producer, boosted demand for US nuts: grower prices reached $2,800 a ton in 2025, up 67 percent and the highest since 2014 after inflation, pushing the crop's value to $340 million, more than double 2024.

The same report expects walnut bearing acreage to rise slightly for the first time since 2022, to 382,535 acres. Walnut production rose 33 percent to 809,000 tons in 2025, contributing to a 13 percent price fall in 2025-26, and there is uncertainty about how a very strong El Nino could affect California's chill hours and snowpack for the 2027 crop.

Photo: M.O. Stevens / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Source: Capital Press