Riverina to become hazelnut capital with Ferrero initiative

Ferrero Group has announced the establishment of a $70 million hazelnut production facility in the Riverina region, which has been launched by Agri Australis, a subsidiary of the Ferrero Group.

The company made the announcement at the presentation of its fourth annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report at the Italian Cultural Institute in Sydney last week, which was officiated by the NSW Premier, Barry O’Farrell.

Ferrero’s CSR Report, which is verified by consulting firm Deloitte, was awarded an A+ rating for the second year running from the Global Reporting Initiative, a partner of the United Nations’ Global Compact.

The report confirms that the company is on track to achieve its goal of 100% sustainable certified cocoa by 2020 and 100% certified sustainable segregated palm oil by the end of 2014.

Speaking at the launch, Premier O’Farrell congratulated Ferrero on both initiatives and highlighted Ferrero’s recent promotion to gold partner status in the NSW Government’s Sustainability Advantage program.

O’Farrell commended Ferrero’s establishment of an innovative trigeneration plant, which powers more than half of the company’s Lithgow factory where the Tic Tac and Nutella brands are manufactured.

According to O’Farrell, the new hazelnut facility will help make the Riverina the hazelnut capital of Australia by seeing the planting of more than one million hazelnut trees on 2000 hectares near Narrandera.

The project will provide up to 50 permanent and 50 seasonal jobs. Planting is planned for autumn 2014, with harvest anticipated in March 2018. The hazelnuts are expected to be in full production by 2022.

Agri Australis’ General Manager Alessandro Boccardo said the new concept had been several years in development and could not have come to fruition without the close working relationships between the Department of Primary Industries, the Department of Agriculture and the local community in the Riverina.