Hazelnut Market Update January 2022 Week 1

The closed market during the New Year has helped export preparations to be made during the first week of 2022. Since only two weeks ago, the exchange rate was at its highest, the Turkish hazelnut market is still reeling from this economic fallout.

Much uncertainty has been created due to the volatility of the Turkish Lira, and even though it has definitely stabilized again, there is debate over whether it will increase once more.

As you can expect, this has created much uncertainty in the domestic and international market, with the domestic market getting smaller. Most export factories estimate that this shrinkage will continue in the next few weeks of 2022. 

In-shell hazelnut suppliers state that the reason they've slowed the supply of hazelnut in case prices go up again. Such a situation definitely weakens the market, and key players will see different export prices than expected.

What everyone truly wants to see is how the TMO will handle this situation. Industry experts say that the TMO is likely to offer its hazelnuts in the market before it is too late. But this is truly a question of perspective since many bigger exports have already filled their inventories during the uncertainty in the last few weeks.

The only thing that can definitely help tackle the uncertainty is a stable exchange rate. We've seen in the past week that the USD/TL is in the 11 -12 band, but its movements in this range are still aggressive. 

There is still plenty of doubt whether the government will be able to establish the stability of the Turkish Lira in the long run. We shall have to see how the situation progresses.