CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Foray Bioscience has entered into a multi-year partnership with Z’s Nutty Ridge aimed at accelerating the production and distribution of hazelnut trees adapted to U.S. growing conditions, the company said.
The Cambridge-based plant biomanufacturing firm will apply its “fabricated seed” technology to propagate Z’s Nutty Ridge’s proprietary hybrid hazelnut varieties, enabling scalable production from single plant cells. The agreement includes a three-year, multi-million-dollar forward purchase commitment between the two companies.
The partnership is designed to address longstanding bottlenecks in scaling perennial crops such as nut trees, which can take decades to breed and distribute through traditional methods. By using cell-based propagation, Foray said it can significantly shorten the time required to bring new plant varieties to market.
Hazelnuts are a key ingredient in the global chocolate and confectionery industry, but roughly 70 percent of supply is concentrated along Turkey’s Black Sea coast, leaving the market vulnerable to climate, disease, and geopolitical risks. At the same time, European hazelnut varieties preferred by the industry have struggled in North America due to Eastern Filbert Blight, a fungal disease native to the region.
Z’s Nutty Ridge, based in New York’s Finger Lakes region, has spent more than three decades breeding hybrid hazelnut trees that combine cold hardiness, resistance to Eastern Filbert Blight, and high nut quality. The company has tested thousands of trees in northeastern U.S. conditions to identify varieties suited for domestic cultivation.
“We’ve spent over 30 years developing hybrid hazelnut trees that can thrive in the northeastern United States. Now, scaling these varieties to get them in the hands of growers is the challenge. Foray’s fabricated seed technology offers a path to get there,” said Dawn Zarnowski, owner of Z’s Nutty Ridge.
Foray said its platform is designed to make plant propagation faster and more predictable, particularly for crops that are difficult to scale using conventional methods.
“For hard-to-propagate crops like hazelnut, fabricated seed can help deliver productive and regionally-adapted varieties out into the world,” said Ashley Beckwith, Ph.D., founder and CEO of Foray Bioscience. “Despite the need for resilient, local food systems, many so-called ‘specialty’ crops never make it to growers, simply because we’re unable to scale the plants on hand. Foray’s bioproduction platform is designed to make deploying elite plant varieties a fast, predictable, repeatable process.”
