Letter from our President, Compton Chase-Lansdale

President of the Hazelnut Growers of Oregon.

As an agribusiness cooperative enterprise, our mission is to deliver sustained superior returns to our grower-owners and cash growers alike. Our grower-owners (the membership) benefit the most from rights to the profits of HGO, from superior field price revenues & premiums, certainty of payment and highest quality service. Cash growers who deliver to us also share in these benefits as well and also help support the protective umbrella we provide for the entire industry.

The Hazelnut Growers of Oregon (HGO) was established in 1984 by a core group of growers who wanted to vertically integrate into the processing and marketing functions. The purpose was to gain direct access to global markets. More than 27 years later, HGO and its Westnut, LLC. and Oregon Orchard, LLC.  subsidiaries, represent the largest USA manufacturer and marketer of hazelnut products. We are proud to be the market leader, and willingly support strong field prices for every hazelnut grower in the State. One dramatic result of our efforts has been the doubling of grower returns over the last six years as result of HGO’s aggressive sales in our principal Asian, European and domestic markets.

As market leader, we also willingly accept responsibility for demonstrating leadership in the area of food safety. We are committed to providing the safest and highest quality product to our customers in all markets we serve. Our grower-owned organization firmly believes that its own sustained success depends on customer confidence in HGO’s promise of highest quality and safest hazelnut products at all times. 

Our industry is enjoying a resurgence of interest due to robust per acre earnings by growers and the availability of improved planting material coming from our industry’s research program at Oregon State University. On behalf of our grower-owners, I invite you to consider joining our organization as the best strategy to enjoy the greatest total benefits from being hazelnut growers.  We welcome full membership  as a grower-owner and/or deliver on a cash basis.

Compton Chase-Lansdale
President & CEO
Hazelnut Growers of Oregon/ Westnut LLC

He who plants trees labors for the benefit of a future generation.