Hazelnut Promotion Group co-chairman Dursun Oguz Gursoy said that they, as the Hazelnut Promotion Group, are continuing with the intense promotional afforts around the world, and teh promotional efforts and research and development activities in the Russian Federation are in final stage. Gursoy expressed the following about the topic:

"The aim of the Hazelnut Promotion Group which consists of nine members in total including a member from the Undersecretariat of Foreign Trade and four members from the boards of directors of the Black Sea and Istanbul Hazelnut and Products Exporters’ Unions, is to realize advertising and promotional activities which will increase the consumption of hazelnuts in home and foreign markets in order to solve the problem of overproduction in Turkey and organize research and development activities that will support these promotional activities."

The countries that Hazelnut Promotion Group has set as target markets or has operations in are the United States of America, Japan, People’s Republic of China and India. Also, starting from July 2009, advertising and promotional activities will start for the Russian Federation.

United Stated of America

United States of America, being the first country that the Hazelnut Promotion Group has started advertisement and promotional activities in, created an entity called the “Hazelnut Council” consisting of Oregon Hazelnut Marketing Board and American Food Exporters’ Union given the size and the characteristics of the market and continued its operations under this entity starting from 1997.

Firstly, a corporate identity and a logo which emphasized the slogan of “Hazelnut Premium, Preferred, Perfect” was created and PR firms with a proven success in advertising of food products were contacted in order to increase the knowledge and therefore the consumption of hazelnuts.

In order to ensure that consumer trends are better reflected to food industry experts and decision-makers, three focus groups were established namely, confectionary, pastry and food services, and cd-rom’s have been prepared for each sector by having them taste 3-4 product samples and comment on the use of hazelnut as an additive.

Promotion Campaign with Ferrero

On the other hand, by attending trade fairs, conferences and various other activities and by giving sponsorships,  possibilities of cooperation with the leading firms of the food sector were created and therefore a wide reach was aimed.

While doing so, a web site, www.hazelnutcouncil.org was created in order to support the aforementioned activities and create a credible source of information. Both the consumers and the American food industry were addressed and opportunities were provided for them to supply samples.

To create a data that shows the health benefits of hazelnuts and to publish it to consumers, health professionals, to food companies, Dr. David Mark has been working as consultant in the scientific works on behalf of Hazelnut Council.

In order to create data demonstrating the health benefits of hazelnuts, publish it to consumers, health professionals and food corporations and to have an impact on them concerning the health benefits of hazelnut; Dr. David Mark was hired as a consultant in the name of Hazelnut Council to conduct scientific research.

Japan

In Japan, Hazelnut Promotion Group started its advertisement activities with Daiko Advertising Inc.(Japan) and its promotional activities with World Marine&Trade Co., Ltd. in 2000. Starting from the 2004-2005 period, the decision of working with Prap Japan which undertook the promotional activities of Almond Board of California for four years starting from 1998 was taken. Hazelnut Promotion Group is still working with the same company.

The advertisement and promotional activities taking place in this country are executed under the name of “Turkish Hazelnut Association Japan” for the Japanese pay close attention to corporate identity. "Turkish Hazelnut Turkey-Japan Promotion Committee" was formed with the attendance from "Japanese Hard-Shell Fruits Union" in order to create collaboration and provide positive contributions.

Since the beginning of the activities, in order to both have an impact on the potential hazelnut using companies and create a consciousness about hazelnuts in consumers; ads were published in newspapers and magazines, catalogues and brochures in Japanese were prepared, seminars and various other activities about the promotion of hazelnuts were held with Mother’s Children’s and Families’ Health Education Group, promotional activities with University Cooperation which is the central association for college and university students were held, cooking with hazelnuts contests were held in cooperation with various cooking schools, and health benefits of hazelnuts were emphasized in seminars which aim to inform exporters and producers.

FOODEX, known as the most important food fair in the Far East, and Dessert-Sweets&Drink Fair, which is affiliated with Fabex Fair - a fair which recently became one of the most important in Japan - were attended and also seminars and workshops emphasizing the health benefits of hazelnuts were realized.

In the year 2000, following the press releases concerning the start of the activities, a press conference about the promotion of hazelnuts was held in the Turkish Embassy in Tokyo. In 2001, a "Press Party" for newspaper and magazine writers was held in a Turkish restaurant in Tokyo about the promotion of hazelnuts. Also, on the 27th of November, 2007, an informative seminar was held for Japanese hazelnut association members in order to increase the awareness about hazelnuts.

Companies such as Meiji Seika, Glico, Morinaga Seika which are the major chocolate producers in Japan were visited, joint promotional opportunities were investigated and these companies were encouraged to develop products with hazelnuts.

In scope of the "Turkish Year" which took place in 2003, 100.000 promotional chocolates with hazelnut were prepared, 300.000 small brochures were distributed and promotional broadcasts were prepared for TV channels.

Federation of Japan Confectionary Associations (FJCA) was cooperated within order to find new areas of use for hazelnuts and increase the consumption of hazelnuts for pastry owners and chefs, and seminars were held in cities such as Hakodate, Hyogo, Akita, Yamagata, Fukui,Hiroþima, Tokyo, Fukuoka and Yamaguchi.

“Turkish Hazelnut Booklet” was published which includes information on the production of Turkish hazelnuts, types of hazelnuts, areas of use, nutrition and health information, and recipes of food and desserts with hazelnuts. This booklet was distributed with the June 2005 issue of the leading gastronomy magazine in Japan, “Ryori Ohkuku”.

4 cooking classes have been opened in Japan’s prestigious cooking school Le Cordon Blue; Tokyo, Kobe and Yokohama. These classes were attended by 115 consumers and 7 media representatives, mostly consisting of females at their thirties.

A seminar for bakers were organised in Yamagata in cooperation with Japanese Confectionary Associations. This activity was participated by 62 manufacturers who are members of FJCA Yamagata Branch.

A seminar was held in Tokyo targeted at confectionary manufacturers. 57 manufacturers attended the activity.

Discussions with the leading cooks in Japan revealed technical and preferential differences between large and small cities with regard to bakery trends, and promotional activities have been revised to increase the popularity of hazelnut which is not well-known even by professionals particularly in small cities.

A committee consisting of Japanese importers, manufactures and media representatives was invited to visit the hazelnut production areas in our country to see the hazelnut fields, processing plants and chocolate factories, and the committee attended the 2005-2006 Hazelnut Season Opening ceremony in Akçakoca.

People's Republic Of China

In the People’s Republic of China, after the competition for finding a new name for hazelnut ended and the name Weizhenguo was given to hazelnut, there have been regular advertising and promotion activities since August 2001. A Chinese website called www.hpgchina.com.cn was prepared to support the activities in People’s Republic of China.

In order to encourage the large number of small- and medium-size enterprises in the People’s Republic of China to use hazelnuts in their products and to help them meet their small-scale hazelnut needs, a “Turkish Hazelnut Promotion Centre” has been founded.

In order to popularize hazelnut in China, the hazelnuts produced in the “Turkish Hazelnut Promotion Centre” have been presented in the supermarkets in Beijing and Shanghai in salty, chocolate and sweet forms. Efforts to enter the market were completed in Guangzhou, another important Chinese city besides Beijing and Shanghai, and hazelnut sales started in the city markets. Promotional activities for consumers have been organised in the supermarkets in Beijing and Shanghai and consumers were allowed to taste hazelnut at the weizhenguo stands built in markets and several promotional weizhenguo gifts were given.
Upon a press conference held in the “Promotion Centre”, a “Weizhenguo Journalists Club” was established with members being representatives from big food companies and people from the press, and a team of 20 people from Chinese papers with high circulation and from leading food processors visited Turkey to examine in situ the Turkish hazelnut, hazelnut processing phases and applications.

Promotional broadcasts for Weizhenguo were made in the International Chinese Radio about the applications of Weizhenguo and its health benefits, etc. Training courses for the food processing markets were given in the “Promotion Centre”, samples were sent to potential users of hazelnut, newsletters were delivered and visitors were accepted to the Promotion Centre. 200.000 packages of 10 gr Weizhenguo were distributed in 95 primary schools in consideration of the fact that the single child policy has made the Chinese children the small empire of the family. As another important activity targeted at children, several Weizhenguo gifts and samples were given to children in the parks on the “Children’s Day”.

Weizhenguo promotional show was done for 3 months in the Sophie’s Bakery Food company shops which is located in Beijing with a chain of 30 shops and whose basic products are cakes, ice-cream cakes, western type biscuits and European type chocolates. This company was highly interested in Weizhenguo to use in products such as cake, bread, western type cake and chocolate. It has been declared that the cooperation with Sophie’s Bakery Food will be a good starting point to spread the use of Weizhenguo in the entire Chinese bakery industry.

India

Promotion and advertising activities for India, which is one of the target markets for the Turkish hazelnut, started in August 2005 and below is a summary of the activities organised in India.

FTG’s activities in India are carried out by SCS Group company.

A business trip to Turkey was organised so that a committee consisting of Indian dried fruit importers would visit the hazelnut growing and processing plants in the Black Sea region. This committee also participated in the 2005-2006 Hazelnut Season Opening ceremony in Akçakoca.

The Indian council partcipated to Upper Crust Show in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008;  to Hospitality World Show in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009; to Aahar 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009; IFE India in 2006, 2007 and 2008; IFOWS in 2007 and 2008, and to Annaporna 2008 fairs.

A reception was held in the New Delhi Turkish Embassy residence by the Embassy Mr. Hasan Göguþ to announce that activities began in India to promote the Turkish hazelnut, followed by the Embassy making negotiations with many media and industry representatives and telling about the history and the health benefits of Turkish hazelnut.

In order to continue the acceleration created by the first reception in Delhi, the second phase of the activity was organised in the Taj President Hotel in Bombay. During the activity, Turkish hazelnut samples and materials were distributed to participants from the media and the industry. The activity was attended by 30 people from the media and 50 from the industry.

Russia

With the market structure of the Russian Federation, a market research has been done to determine the strategies of the advertising and promotional activities; and it is understood that because of the afct that hazelnut is known by the Russian Federation, direct advertising activities can be used.

EMCG firm has been selected as the PR firm of the Russian Federation hazelnut campaigns as a result of the works in coordination with the Consultancy. The negotiations on the contract, storyboards, and on the final shape of the project is still in progress.

Domestic R-D

For the purpose of increasing domestic consumption, promotion activities are conducted in the national television, newspapers, magazines, local TV ads and CDs in February-July 1999 period, October 1999-February 2000 period, December 2000 - March 2001 period, January - March 2007 period, and in December 2007-February 2008 period.

Hazelnut Promotion Group has prepared a website. (www.ftg.org.tr)

A video film was produced in 1997 to give information such as hazelnut production , processing plants and health benefits and its English, German, Chinese, Japanese and Spanish versions other than the Turkish version were used in the promotional activities abroad.

Following the above effort that was performed as the first activity of FTG, a promotional film was prepared in 2001 in Turkish, English, Japanese and Chinese languages and in video and CD format to describe all phases from the harvest of hazelnut to the presentation to consumers and to reveal the current modern status that the domestic hazelnut processing industry has reached, supplemented by a promotional CD issued in 2002 to include films, photographs, animations, voices and texts about hazelnut as well as statistical data and applicable hazelnut standards.

In order to increase domestic hazelnut consumption, commercials were broadcast and announcements were made in television, cinemas and radios during February-May 1999, November 1999-February 2000 and December 2000-March 2001 periods, and advertisements were posted in magazines, on billboards, rackets and megaboards to carry out advertising and promotion campaigns that emphasise the health benefits of hazelnut. Researches made after these efforts revealed that there was a 30% increase in domestic consumption particularly following the “Aganigi” commercial that was unforgettable for the Turkish public.

A project about "Meals containing Hazelnut" was implemented in 2001, within the scope of which "Forgotten and Unknown Hazelnut Recipes" contest was held on February 1 st 2002 in Giresun and "Let us Cook the Most Delicious Meals with Hazelnut" contest was held on March 2 nd 2002 in Ýzmir and April 1 st 2002 in Ýstanbul.

The other contests of the p roject, namely "Creating New Meals with Hazelnut" and the international "Global Tastes with Hazelnut" were completed in 2002 and a cookbook named “Global Tastes with Hazelnut” was published using the participating recipes. Having being published in English and Turkish with the name “Prestige Book” and in Turkish with the name “Ev Tipi Kitabi (Home Type Book)” in July 2003, the book has been used for domestic and foreign promotional activities.

In the activities organised in 2002 for the National Sovereignty and Children’s Festival on April 23 rd, children from Turkey and all over the world were given packages of hazelnut as a present. We were the sponsor for and participated with an info stand in the conference held in Istanbul Swiss Hotel on June 26 th 2003 by Prof. Dr. Mehmet Öz, Columbia-Cornell University & New York Presbyterian Hospital Coronary, Vein and Breast Surgery Department Head, who has been encouraging people to regularly consume hazelnut for a healthy life.

Within the scope of the project that has been jointly implemented by Turkish Airlines (THY) and FTG since November 2003, roasted hazelnuts provided by FTG are being given as a treat in all THY flights and hazelnut promotions are continuing with the Skylife journal supplied to the passengers in THY flights and the airshow and video film presentations made through the on-board screens. In order to increase domestic hazelnut consumption, domestic advertising and promotional activities were started in 2005-2006 period using means of communication such as TV, papers, magazines, cinema, internet, rackets/bus-stops.

The project about "Determining and Extending the Shelf Life of Hazelnuts and Hazelnut Products" performed by Tubitak MAM is aimed at determining the changes in superior quality and taste properties of hazelnut during the shelf life under different storage conditions and defining the measures to be taken to increase its shelf life.

The project about "Factors Influencing Aflatoxin Formation in Hazelnuts and Taking Preventive Measures" performed by Tubitak MAM is aimed at determining the factors that influence aflatoxin formation in hazelnut from the hazelnut fields to the exportation phase as well as defining the preventive measures.

The project about “Hazelnut Sampling for Aflatoxin Analysis” was performed by Tubitak Marmara Research Centre in cooperation with the International Nut Council (INC) and it was aimed at analysing the aflatoxin distribution in a lot, starting from taking samples to determine the aflatoxin level in a hazelnut lot and calculating the errors made in the sample preparation and quantity determination steps. The most important added value of this project is to ensure that the non-homogeneous aflatoxin distribution in a hazelnut lot is determined with minimum error and that samples taken using correct methods are analysed to make a decision representing the whole lot during the boundary checks in international trading.