Foray Bioscience, a plant biomanufacturing company developing plant products and so‑called “fabricated seeds” from cells, has announced a new partnership with Z’s Nutty Ridge, a nut tree nursery and breeding orchard based in New York’s Finger Lakes region.
The agreement follows Foray’s earlier fabricated seed partnership with West Coast Chestnut and underscores a growing industry challenge: while annual crops can move from breeding to commercial scale within a few seasons, new perennial varieties – particularly trees – can take decades to reach growers at meaningful volumes.
Fabricated seeds are encapsulated plant embryos grown directly from plant cells that can be sown like a conventional seed to produce a whole plant.
Under the terms of the deal, Foray will develop fabricated seeds for a selection of Z’s Nutty Ridge’s proprietary hybrid hazelnut parent varieties. The goal is to make these regionally adapted trees available at scale, several years faster than is possible through conventional nursery propagation. The agreement includes a three‑year, multi‑million‑dollar forward purchase plan between the two companies.
Why hazelnuts matter – and why supply is fragile
Hazelnuts are a cornerstone ingredient in the global chocolate and confectionery industry. Yet around 70% of the world’s supply comes from a single geography: Turkey’s Black Sea coast. The concentration leaves a market valued at more than $12 billion exposed to climate volatility, disease pressure and geopolitical risk.
Efforts to diversify production have long faced biological constraints. European hazelnut varieties prized by processors for their nut quality struggle in North America due to Eastern Filbert Blight (EFB), a native fungal pathogen. As a result, US production has historically been limited, largely confined to the Pacific Northwest.
Jeff and Dawn Zarnowski, owners of Z’s Nutty Ridge, have spent more than 30 years attempting to change that balance.
Decades spent breeding the “right” hazelnut
Over three decades of testing and selection, Z’s Nutty Ridge has identified hazelnut genetics capable of thriving in the northeastern US. In their multi‑acre breeding orchard – spanning USDA climate zones 4 and 5 – thousands of hybrid hazelnut trees have been planted, evaluated and culled.
The result is a portfolio of parent varieties that combine cold hardiness and resistance to Eastern Filbert Blight with the nut quality demanded by commercial markets.
The remaining bottleneck, according to the Zarnowskis, is no longer genetics – but scale.
“We’ve spent over 30 years developing hybrid hazelnut trees that can thrive in the northeastern United States,” said Dawn Zarnowski, owner of Z’s Nutty Ridge. “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.”
Fabricated seed as a scaling mechanism
Foray Bioscience’s approach is designed to address exactly that constraint. Its fabricated seed technology uses a cell‑based, clonal propagation process – similar in outcome to vegetative cuttings, but at far greater scale.
Rather than producing one tree from one cutting, Foray’s system enables a single elite cutting to generate thousands of embryos, which are then assembled into seeds. Each fabricated seed is a genetic duplicate of the parent plant.
“For hard‑to‑propagate crops like hazelnut, fabricated seed can help deliver productive and regionally adapted varieties out into the world,” said Dr Ashley Beckwith, 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.”
According to Foray, the trees grown from fabricated seeds closely match conventionally propagated nursery trees in vigour, uniformity and time to first nut. The main difference, Beckwith said, is manufacturing throughput.
“This transition to a high‑volume manufacturing model simply allows for an order of magnitude more orchard‑ready plants from the same elite parent stock,” she said.
Building a domestic hazelnut industry
Foray and Z’s Nutty Ridge see the partnership as a step toward making the US a competitive hazelnut producer for the first time outside its traditional regions.
By rapidly propagating EFB‑resistant, cold‑hardy hybrids, the companies aim to unlock large‑scale hazelnut acreage in areas of the country previously considered unsuitable for the crop.
“This approach allows for the production of hundreds of thousands of true‑to‑type seeds,” Beckwith said. “That provides a pathway to establish commercial hazelnut production at a scale that simply hasn’t been feasible using traditional nursery methods.”
The longer‑term ambition is to supply major food manufacturers that require consistent quality and high volumes over many years.
“Large‑scale confectionery and CPG companies already invest heavily in securing hazelnut supply chains globally,” Beckwith said, pointing to the industry’s emphasis on long‑term contracts and sustainability. “At this stage, the focus remains on the rapid propagation of elite genetics to build the foundational acreage required to support these downstream commercial demands.”
A model for other perennial crops?
While the initial focus is hazelnuts, both companies frame the partnership as part of a broader shift in how perennial crops could be scaled.
Because trees often take years to mature – and are expensive to propagate – many promising varieties never move beyond breeding programmes. If fabricated seed technology proves itself in the field over multiple seasons, it could change how quickly elite genetics reach growers.
Foray is now in a validation phase designed to confirm long‑term performance and stability across environments. Beckwith said early indications show germination rates comparable to, or better than, natural seed, with strong acclimation from lab to soil.
She is also confident that fabricated‑seed trees will remain stable across multiple years and environmental conditions. “Because fabricated seeds are genetic clones of the parent plant, they inherit the same biological stability and environmental resilience as the original variety,” she said.
“The underlying genetics of these hybrid hazelnuts have already been selected for their performance across diverse conditions, and this cell-based propagation method preserves those specific traits without modification.
The current validation phase aims to confirm that these ‘true-to-type’ characteristics remain consistent as the partners move from the laboratory to large-scale field establishment.
For long‑cycle crops where time is the biggest barrier to innovation, that promise may prove to be the most valuable technology of all.
