Skopje, 8 June 2024 (MIA) — Macedonian hazelnuts are of high quality and there is a great potential for them to become an export crop, hazelnut growers said at a Macedonian hazelnut growers conference held in Skopje on Saturday.

Boshko Nelkoski, one of the conference organizers, said his previous experience with exporting hazelnuts to Switzerland had shown that the country was considered an A class hazelnut supplier.

"Our hazelnut is of high quality. In many aspects it is of better quality than the Turkish hazelnut," Nelkoski said.

Switzerland, he said, was buying around four hundred to five hundred tons of organic hazelnuts per year. He said Macedonian hazelnut growers were able to export ten to twenty tons of organic hazelnuts for the Swiss market.

By partnering with Swiss buyers, he said, he was hoping the country would become recognized as a high quality hazelnut producer in Europe.

Swiss company HALBA representative Milanka Fijamin said they were interested in buying Macedonian hazelnuts for the Swiss market.

"In the last few years, we have been actively cooperating with our partner Boshko Nelkoski and his company, aiming to encourage local hazelnut production and export of organic hazelnuts for the Swiss market," Fijamin said.

Additional Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Economy in the caretaker government Cvetan Tripunovski said the new government would be open to facilitating the placement of Macedonian hazelnuts on the European market.

He said the hazelnut growers conference would also discuss a new draft law on organic production that was currently in the works.

"Let's listen to both sides so we can pass a law that will be sustainable and effective and that will boost the agricultural production of quality hazelnuts in the Republic of Macedonia," Tripunovski said. mr/