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Italy’s Nutella spread turns 60: from a factory in Piedmont to global success story

Nutella, the famous chocolate-hazelnut spread made by Italy's Ferrero company turned 60 years' old on Saturday 20th April. But how did one Piedmont-made cream go on to conquer the world?

Published: 20 April 2024 14:58 CEST

Nutella jars at the Ferrero plant in Villers-Ecalles, northwestern France.

Nutella jars at the Ferrero plant in Villers-Ecalles, northwestern France. Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP

The first jar of the spread was produced by the Ferrero factory in Alba, in the Piedmont region, on 20th April 1964, but the Ferrero family came up with the idea much earlier.

Back in the 1920s, Pietro Ferrero had the idea of a low-priced chocolate snack to eat with bread which, he said, was the perfect replacement for workers who typically brought bread and meats or cheese to eat at the factory.

The chocolate spread became a chocolate-hazelnut spread because of Piedmont’s tradition for gianduja (a harder blend of chocolate with hazelnuts, invented in Turin) and because hazelnuts were readily available at a low cost.

But the spread wasn’t called Nutella at this point. In 1946, it was called Giandujot or Pasta Gianduja and it cost some four to five times less than the price of traditional chocolate. Back then, it was sold by weight and cut into slices to fill sandwiches.

In 1951, it underwent a name change to Supercrema and in 1963, Pietro’s son, Michele, decided to market the product across Europe prompting another name change to the one we all know.

Since then, Nutella’s success has known no bounds. It’s featured in films (Bianca – above), mentioned in songs by Giorgio Gaber and appeared in essays and recipe books.

Today, 500 thousand tonnes of the addictive spread are produced each year and it’s sold in 170 countries around the world.

READ ALSO: Italian recipe of the week: Frappe ripiene di nutella

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'Extreme' climate blamed for world's worst wine harvest in 62 years

“Extreme environmental conditions” including droughts, fires and other problems with climate were mostly to blame for the drastic fall, said the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) that covers nearly 50 wine producing countries.

Australia and Italy suffered the worst, with 26 and 23 percent drops. Spain lost more than a fifth of its production. Harvests in Chile and South Africa were down by more than 10 percent.

The OIV said the global grape harvest was the worst since 1961, and worse even than its early estimates in November.

In further bad news for winemakers, customers drank three per cent less wine in 2023, the French-based intergovernmental body said.

Director John Barker highlighted “drought, extreme heat and fires, as well as heavy rain causing flooding and fungal diseases across major northern and southern hemisphere wine producing regions.”

Although he said climate problems were not solely to blame for the drastic fall, “the most important challenge that the sector faces is climate change.

“We know that the grapevine, as a long-lived plant cultivated in often vulnerable areas, is strongly affected by climate change,” he added.

France bucked the falling harvest trend, with a four percent rise, making it by far the world’s biggest wine producer.

Wine consumption last year was however at its lowest level since 1996, confirming a fall-off over the last five years, according to the figures.

The trend is partly due to price rises caused by inflation and a sharp fall in wine drinking in China – down a quarter – due to its economic slowdown.

The Portuguese, French and Italians remain the world’s biggest wine drinkers per capita.

Barker said the underlying decrease in consumption is being “driven by demographic and lifestyle changes. But given the very complicated influences on global demand at the moment,” it is difficult to know whether the fall will continue.

“What is clear is that inflation is the dominant factor affecting demand in 2023,” he said.

Land given over to growing grapes to eat or for wine fell for the third consecutive year to 7.2 million hectares (17.7 million acres).

But India became one of the global top 10 grape producers for the first time with a three percent rise in the size of its vineyards.

France, however, has been pruning its vineyards back slightly, with its government paying winemakers to pull up vines or to distil their grapes.

The collapse of the Italian harvest to its lowest level since 1950 does not necessarily mean there will be a similar contraction there, said Barker.

Between floods and hailstones, and damp weather causing mildew in the centre and south of the country, the fall was “clearly linked to meteorological conditions”, he said.

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