Five decades of grower-first stewardship
Our purpose is to bring Oregon hazelnuts to national and global markets. We work daily to secure the bestfuture for our community’s hazelnut commodity.
In 1976, three Oregon growers, John Newell, Dick Birkemeier, and Ben Mitchell Jr., left a Dundee co-op to build something different. The hazelnut industry was still finding its shape, and they saw an opportunity to give the region's crop a more grower-centered path to market. Not just a better processor. A better partner. Willamette Hazelnut was the result.
Through generational transitions and shifts in how Oregon hazelnuts reach the world, the founding purpose has held. Today, Willamette Hazelnut is governed by a board of five local growers, most of them seasoned farmers with deep roots in the valley. The structure reflects the founding intent. Growers don't just supply this organization. They lead it.
Five decades later, that intention still defines how we operate. We work as a handler, intermediary, and steward, positioned between Oregon's growers and the national and global markets their crop supplies. Over the years we've worked with hundreds of growers across the valley, invested in the land and infrastructure that supports them, and built lasting relationships with some of the world's largest food manufacturers. Our job is to hold that system together with care: intake, processing, fulfillment, and the long-term trust that makes all of it work. Some of those grower relationships span generations. Some of our buyer relationships are measured in decades. That continuity is not incidental. It is the point.
