Tasmanian hazelnut farm Hazelbrae turns away from hospitality to online sales success
Now, e-commerce and customers found through social media make up three-quarters of the farm's sales.
It was a very different story 12 months ago.
Despite Hazelbrae's trees being loaded with nuts, challenges in securing a loan forced Ms McLeod and her partner Mick Delphin to put their picturesque Hagley property in northern Tasmania up for sale.
"Because the interest rates had doubled in 12 months we didn't have the financials through COVID … that could show we would pay it," Ms McLeod said.
There simply wasn't enough confidence from banks that the family's product would sell.
Luckily, the family-run business was able to secure a loan and take the property off the market.
They've even just harvested their best-ever yield, coming in at 41 tonnes.
And there are plans to expand the farm, from 5,000 trees to 6,000 over the next two years.
"The first planting was 2005 so they've been there for a while, and we're just now learning how to harvest them," Ms McLeod joked.
"It's actually 25 per cent greater than last year's yield for us, which is incredible."
The couple purchased the property in 2014 and admit the past 11 years have been full of challenges.
It included dealing with the devastating 2016 Tasmanian floods, an unexpected baby and more recently the pandemic.
"COVID left us quite bare in the bank, because we were mostly in tourism at the time," Ms McLeod said.
"So we really did struggle trying to balance what we were doing as farmers, and what we were doing as retail, restaurant, cafe and marketing.
It prompted a rethink, with Hazelbrae choosing to transition out of hospitality to prioritise its farming operations.
"It's really focused us on the farm and the product, and now we're seeing the results that will see us really comfortable in the future," Ms McLeod said.
She said hiring a coach to learn how to increase the farm's online presence and build up sales also proved vital.
"So, we sort of draw in some new people, but they mostly come from social media marketing.
"One of our customers has ordered 16 times in 15 months, so lots of repeat customers."
In late 2023, Ferrero Group, the Italian company behind chocolate products Nutella and Ferrero Rocher announced they would no longer grow hazelnuts in Australia.
For the Australian arm of the company, it meant giving up on a $70 million hazelnut farm in southern New South Wales and announcing it would remove the million trees it had planted at the farm since 2013.
The company cited long-term climate conditions for its decision.
Ms McLeod said it had been a disappointing turn for hazelnut growers, with Ferrero's investment expected to result in growth for the sector.
But the head of peak body Hazelnut Growers of Australia, Trevor Ranford, said he wasn't concerned and he continued to have high hopes for hazelnut farming in the country.
"I saw it with pistachios, where the first two decades, the first 1,000 hectares was planted. In the past 12 years, an extra 2,000 hectares were planted, so the volumes are going up.
"I see hazelnuts as being in that same aspect."
Traditionally, hazelnuts have had the smallest share of Australia's nut-growing industry.
In 2024, the sector produced about 544 tonnes of in-shell hazelnuts with a farm-gate value of $5.5 million, according to the peak body.
There are roughly 1.2 million trees planted around Australia, primarily in the temperate areas of the south-east, including northern Tasmania.
Mr Ranford said the long turnaround between planting trees and seeing a solid crop, which can take between five and seven years, held some farmers back from taking the leap to hazelnuts.
But, he said he believed confidence was growing.
Ms McLeod said she hoped her family's record crop would give confidence to other growers.
"This year, we've actually hand-measured trees yielding up to 17 kilograms, and that's a really good indicator that it's possible to do this in Australia.
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