Page 25 - Rural Tourism Report Washington County

CHAPTER 2: THE WASHINGTON COUNTY AGRICULTURE SECTOR

New Acres of Hazelnuts and Increased Production
Hazelnuts, or filberts as they are called by the
locals, are a crop that has turned around since the
scare of the Eastern Filbert Blight in the 1980's. The
industry was facing certain death until Oregon State

University bred and produced disease-resistant
trees. For the past few years, orchardists have been
planting the new trees in between the old diseased
trees, and producers have begun replacing some
other crops with hazelnuts.
There are now more than 5,000 acres of hazelnut orchards in Washington
County. Photo courtesy of Mary Stewart
In 2014, there were 4,652 established acres in
hazelnut production in Washington County and 473 Hazelnuts are typically transported by semi-trucks
newly planted acres, for a 10 percent increase. Mike and box trucks.
Klein, Executive Director of the Oregon Hazelnut
Industry Offices, projects that a significant increase in Major challenges to this type of agriculture will
acreage will be reported in the near term . Farmers be the development of the international market
26
are making the investment because prices are good to accommodate the increased production, the
and the disease-resistant trees are accessible. availability and high price of land to plant new
acres, road safety to move equipment from orchard
While official sales figures are not available, an to orchard, and road quality for shipping.

educated guess at the current value of the crop in
Washington County would be: 5,125 acres x 2,400 Typically, the hazelnut industry does not have retail
pounds produced per acre = 12,300,000 total outlets on orchards. However, some farms have
pounds x $1.80/pound = $22,140,000 potential their own drying and processing facilities. Hazelnut
market value. Growers of Oregon in Cornelius processes and sells
hazelnuts worldwide from 200 different Oregon
The industry is currently investing in satellite mapping orchards. It also sells its “Oregon Orchard” brand of
of all the hazelnut orchard acres in the state. hazelnuts directly to consumers.

26 Oregon Hazelnut Industry. www.oregonhazelnuts.org/

New varieties of hazelnut trees are
resistant to the Eastern Filbert Blight,
which threatened the industry in
the 1980s. Photo courtesy of Steven
Ward, OSU EESC.

WASHINGTON COUNTY RURAL TOURISM STUDY 21