Food & Drink

Nutella shortage possible after hazelnut crop wiped out

Time to stock up!

A Nutella shortage may be on the horizon thanks to a March frost in Turkey that wiped out about 70 percent of this year’s hazelnut crop.

Hazelnut prices have skyrocketed, hitting a 10-year-high and causing many to worry that prices will only continue to increase with the impending shortage.

That’s bad news for Nutella lovers, as one 13-ounce jar of the coma-inducing cocoa spread is packed with 50 hazelnuts.

Ferrero, the Italian chocolatier that produces Nutella, is the largest consumer of hazelnuts. The company acquired the Turkish hazelnut supplier Oltan Group in July to “guarantee and further improve the quality of a leading raw material that gives a unique taste” to its products, Ferrero said in a press release.

It is unclear how the price of Nutella and other hazelnut-ridden products will be affected by the shortage.