Chestnut prices in Switzerland: the street stand, the supermarket and Ticino

A paper cone of hot chestnuts at a Swiss street stand has cost around four francs per 100 grams for more than a decade. The Luzerner Zeitung reported roughly four francs on average for 100 grams on 2 October 2018, and the Aargauer Zeitung price check of 29 October 2013 found CHF 4.00 in Baden and Brugg and CHF 3.50 to CHF 3.90 in Aarau for the same amount. In a shop you do not buy a portion, you buy weight, and there the price per kilo is what counts. This guide puts the two calculations side by side, explains why they only compare after one conversion step, and covers the Ticino side of the story.

Last updated: September 2026. Sources for this page: «Heissi Marroni» kosten mehr, tagblatt.ch, 26 October 2012; the Aargauer Zeitung price check, 29 October 2013; «Heissi Marroni» sind fein aber teuer, Luzerner Zeitung, 2 October 2018; Schweizer Marroni sind rar und aufwendig, nau.ch, 8 October 2018; a chestnut seller on prices, blick.ch, 31 October 2021; «Castanicoltura, castagne e marronai in Canton Ticino e Bregaglia», the living traditions of Switzerland entry, on the list since 10 September 2012, consulted in September 2026; castanicoltori.ch, ccat.ch and ascona-locarno.com, consulted in September 2026. Weekly chain prices are not in the guide text: the big chains block automated queries to their online shops, and promotion prices change every Thursday.

Rappn is an independent grocery price comparison app in Switzerland, with no commercial agreements with any retailer.

What do hot chestnuts cost at a Swiss street stand?

The third row is the informative one. It is the only one carrying a kilo price, CHF 32.00 at the Igelweid stand in Aarau in October 2013. A stand almost never posts a kilo price, it posts the cone, which is exactly why the price feels different from a shelf price. Two cones are an afternoon snack for two people. The same money in a shop is several kilos to carry home.

Why do 100 grams of chestnuts cost that much?

Three reasons, none of them arbitrary. First, chestnuts lose weight when roasted: the living traditions entry on chestnut culture in Ticino and Bregaglia puts the loss at about 30 per cent. One kilo of raw goods therefore becomes roughly 700 grams of hot chestnuts before anyone has been paid.

Second, the raw material is not cheap. A Swiss grower sold his unroasted chestnuts for CHF 12.00 to CHF 15.00 per kilo according to nau.ch of 8 October 2018. Third, there is hand work in every cone: each nut is scored, roasting needs constant attention, and then come the permit, the pitch and the transport. A busy stand shifts more than 50 kilos of roasted chestnuts on a good day, per the same heritage entry, but it does so in 100 gram portions.

The long trend is therefore explainable rather than dramatic: nau.ch noted in 2018 that the same 100 grams had cost around three francs ten years earlier. Across the whole period we can document, 2012 to 2021, the portion price stayed between CHF 3.50 and CHF 4.00.

Chestnuts in Swiss supermarkets: raw, pre-cooked and as Vermicelles

In the shops chestnuts appear in several forms: raw in the autumn range, pre-cooked and vacuum packed, and processed into Vermicelles paste. Only the first genuinely compares with a stand, and even then only after the roughly 30 per cent roasting loss. Raw goods are sold by weight, so the shelf label carries the unit price per kilo next to the pack price. How to read that small number properly is covered in our guide to Swiss price tags and the unit price.

Weekly chain prices are not in the guide text. The big chains block automated queries to their online shops, and promotion prices change every Thursday in any case: Coop moved its weekly promotions to Thursday in the week of 21 January 2025, Migros and Denner followed on 5 February 2026, while Aldi Suisse and Lidl Schweiz run two waves a week, on Monday and on Thursday. What applies right now is therefore something you see live in the comparison, filtered to your canton, rather than a figure that would already be wrong next Thursday.

Where do the chestnuts we eat come from?

That dependence also explains the jumps after a bad harvest. In 2012 tagblatt.ch reported a harvest shortfall of up to 70 per cent, caused by the Asian chestnut gall wasp and poor weather, and the portion price went from CHF 3.50 to CHF 4.00. The Aargauer Zeitung noted in 2013 that the same insect had been found in Ticino four years earlier. A good Italian harvest, conversely, rarely lowers the stand price: labour, pitch and transport do not move.

In Ticino they are caldarroste, and the seller is the marronaio

Ask for «Marroni» in Ticino and you will be understood, but that is not the everyday word. The fruit is the castagna, the hot portion straight out of the pan is caldarroste, and the person at the fire is the marronaio, marunatt in dialect. That is set out in the living traditions of Switzerland entry on chestnut growing in Ticino and Bregaglia, which also records that about a dozen caldarroste sellers currently work the main Ticino squares and that the season runs roughly from September to March.

South of the Alps the chestnut is not a snack, it is heritage. The Centro di Competenze Agroalimentari Ticino calls it the «albero del pane», the bread tree, because it was a staple food for centuries; it grows between 200 and 1'000 metres and was dried slowly over a fire in small stone huts called grà. Flours, flakes, bread, pasta, cakes, jams and even beers still come out of it. What food costs in the canton overall is covered in our guide to grocery prices in Ticino.

The southern chestnut autumn: sagre and direct sales

Behind all of it stands the Associazione dei castanicoltori della Svizzera italiana, founded in 1999 and based in Cresciano at the Unione Contadini Ticinesi. It runs the Festa della Castagna, the «Mès der castégna» and a centralised chestnut collection through which growers hand in their harvest together. The association publishes no price per kilo on the pages we were able to read, so none is quoted here.

When is chestnut season in Switzerland?

The harvest normally starts in mid September, as blick.ch recalled on 31 October 2021 while describing the usual calendar; that year it was two weeks late. Zurich stands run from October to February according to the same report, and 20 licensed chestnut stands were counted in the city streets in 2021. In Ticino the window is longer, roughly September to March. To place the season in the wider year, see the seasonal produce calendar; the other autumn category with a similar price logic is covered in our guide to game meat prices.

Cheaper at the stand or in the shop? It depends

It depends on what you are buying. Once the roughly 30 per cent roasting loss is factored in, a kilo of raw goods off the shelf is almost always more chestnut for your money, but it is not hot, not scored and not served in a paper cone. The stand sells a finished product and a moment, and CHF 4.00 per 100 grams is a price that has barely moved since 2012. A comparison that throws both into one basket misleads.

What does compare cleanly are the chestnut products in the chains: raw goods, vacuum packed pre-cooked chestnuts and Vermicelles. Rappn pulls the current offers from Migros, Coop, Aldi Suisse, Lidl, Denner, Aligro and Otto's into one view, in four languages, with a canton filter and with the unit price per kilo shown next to the pack price. That is the figure that decides, whenever goods are sold by weight.

Next step: open the current offers, search for «chestnuts» and filter to your canton. Then set a price alert so you do not have to check yourself every week in October. Rappn is free, works without an account and is paid by no chain.