Wilco says it could lay off 70 people, close hazelnut processing facility

Wilco Farmers Cooperative has filed a notice with the state that it could lay off as many as 70 people at the cooperative-owned Hazelnut Growers of Oregon and close the business by the end of the year.

In a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, the company said it will lay off 28 people by Aug. 31 at the processing facility, which opened in 2018 north of Donald.

Hazelnut Growers of Oregon , which merged with Wilco in 2017, operates out of a 120,000 square foot facility.

“We recognize the importance of the hazelnut industry to the greater Willamette Valley region, and we are disappointed we have not been able to achieve an acceptable level of performance with the Hazelnut Growers of Oregon business,” Wilco board chair Ben Coleman said in a statement.

Mt. Angel-based Wilco, which was founded in 1967, said it has 3,000 farmers in the co-op and over 500,000 customers. It has 25 farm store locations in the northwest, including locations in Salem, Silverton and Stayton.

Wilco also has divisions that sell crop protection products and a fuels division.

Wilco announced in June it was trying to sell the Hazelnut Growers of Oregon portion of its business.

In making that announcement, Wilco said it would make its final payments to hazelnut growers for the 2023 crop on June 14, but it also would not take a crop this year.

According to the WARN notification by Wilco vice president of human resources Lisa Smith, employees at Hazelnut Growers of Oregon were notified on June 3 of the impending layoffs.

Smith’s letter to the state, dated July 2, said the company began negotiations since then with a potential buyer, though that buyer was not identified.

If a deal is not made, the facility will close on Dec. 27.

In recent years, prices for hazelnuts have plummeted from all-time highs in 2014.

According to the Hazelnut Bargaining Association, the guarantee minimum price for most varieties was 50 cents per pound in 2023. That’s half of what it was a few years ago and down from the highs of $1.70 per pound in 2014 .

Estimates by the U.S. Department of Agriculture are that 99% of hazelnuts grown in the United States are grown in the Willamette Valley.

Bill Poehler covers Marion and Polk County for the Statesman Journal. Contact him at bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com

This article originally appeared on Salem Statesman Journal: Wilco says it could lay off 70 people, close hazelnut processing facility