Whole Roasted National Hazelnuts Caliber 11-13

The hazelnuts generally they are eaten dried and lightly toasted to obtain an easier elimination of the superficial film and to better develop the aromas they contain.

The major users of hazelnuts are the Swiss (2 kg/person per year), who use them as an ingredient for chocolate.

Every year in Massaquano (NA) on December 12, for the eve of Saint Lucia, the traditional and centuries-old throwing of hazelnuts is held from the roof of the church, adopted as a symbol of the pupils of the eyes, in honor of the saint patroness of sight.
The name of the genus comes from the Greek κορις = helmet, due to the shape of the involucre which covers the fruit, or from kurl, Celtic name of the plant, while the epithet of the avellana species comes from Avella, a city famous since antiquity for the goodness of its hazelnuts. The nut it was among the first fruit trees used and then cultivated by man to satisfy his food needs: its appearance in the Mediterranean and the Balkans dates back to prehistoric times, it is one of the main tree species that colonized the emerged lands after the last glaciation (10,000 years ago), therefore long before the olive tree and the vine.

The deepening of cultivation and propagation techniques took place as early as the 4th century BC, but the cultivation and diffusion of the most interesting varieties for production and commercial purposes took place only after 1900, when it began to be cultivated intensively.

There Turkey , with about 800,000 tons, is the world's leading producer (over 70%) and the international reference price of hazelnuts depends directly on the production fluctuations and exports of this country. Italy is the second largest producer, with over 110,000 tons: the quality of Italian hazelnuts is internationally recognized; in particular the round fruit varieties, such as the Tonda gentile trilobata in Piedmont and the Tonda gentile romana in the Viterbo area, represent qualitative excellence that determine a price in themselves. The major users of hazelnuts are the Swiss (2 kg/person/year), who use them as an ingredient in chocolate. The most extensive hazelnut cultivations are located in Turkey, Italy and Spain, respectively with 379,000, 68,348 and 22,600 hectares in 2005; these surfaces together make up over 85% of the world's hazelnut groves. Analyzing the average unitary yields per hectare, it is observed that the USA holds the record with 3.78 tons equal to more than double the European average; this is mainly due to the massive mechanization of American hazelnut cultivation and the high use of fertilizers and plant protection products.

France and Georgia achieved yields of 2 tons, followed by Turkey and Italy with 1.88 and 1.74 tons respectively. In Asia, as well as in Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan, and part of Turkey, hazelnut growing is present in Iran and China with production sizes of 24,000 tons each. With regard to the international market, Italy is second after Turkey for the export of shelled hazelnuts, the form in which marketing mainly takes place. In the two-year period 1995-96, only 2.4% of world production was exported in shell.