Italy: Ferrero sells 1 billion Nutella Biscuits in first year

Rome: Italians have taken to Nutella Biscuits in such a big way that Ferrero can barely keep up with demand, selling one billion of the Nutella-filled shortbread cookies in Italy since the product was launched one year ago.

Ferrero had reckoned on selling 25 million packets however in the end it has sold more than 47 million, making it the biggest-selling product in the Italian biscuit market.

To celebrate this success the company is to invest €80 million in the construction of a new production line at the Italian plant of Balvano (Potenza), where it will join another recently-built plant.

Ferrero, the Italian brand behind the Nutella chocolate-hazelnut spread, says this will allow it to double its production, with the aim of satisfying demand in Italy as well as serving new markets abroad.

Nutella has proved wildly popular since it was invented 55 years ago, and is sold in 160 countries around the world, despite controversy over its constituent ingredient: palm oil.

However the company, which also make Ferrero Roche sweets, insists that it only uses certified, sustainable palm oil which is kept apart from conventional palm oil throughout the supply chain.