SA: Macadamia harvest improves after drought

After a disappointing 2015/16 season, the South African macadamia industry is looking forward to an average season. Several adverse factors remained during the growing season, for instance late rains in the north, restricted irrigation and warm winds burning flowers during springtime in the Hazyview area, affecting fruit set. Harvesting of early cultivars like 816, 788 and Nelmak 2 commences in March in the northern parts of the country with Beaumont harvests ready at the end of April or beginning May.

Last year’s harvest of 39 000t (22% down from 2015) attests to the effects of drought and low atmospheric humidity. South African volumes have in the past reached up to 47 000t and projected peak harvest volumes have not yet been reached – estimates up to 74 000t have been mentioned. An annual growth of 12% is expected due to increased plantings coming into full production (under favourable conditions a tree can bear fruit by its fifth year). Because trees have had a resting period due to lower than optimal production, 2017/18 might be an extremely good season, says Lindi van Rooyen, marketing manager of Valley Macadamias Group. But for the moment the industry can barely meet growing interest in the crop.

In the Lowveld region (Nelspruit, Hazyview, Barberton, White River) rains have brought momentary relief, especially to nuts under dryland production (even if it has resulted in some trees flowering twice), but dam levels are still sub-optimal. According to Alwyn du Preez, technical advisor to Golden Macadamias, their 2015/16 harvest was 10,500t, which they regard as quite low, given the area under production. Their farmers expect an average season, but it seems as if nut size might be larger than last year.

Mayo Macs, which represents the bulk of macadamias grown in KwaZulu-Natal, supplemented by nuts from the Lowveld production area, estimates that their Mpumalanga volumes were down by 30 to 40% last year, while contrary to the north of the country, harvests were up in KwaZulu-Natal (averaging a total decrease of 11%). It’s unsure whether production will have fully recovered by this year.

“The drought leaves a legacy. In southern KwaZulu-Natal there were good rains during fruit set, but up here in the Lowveld, the first rain only came in November,” says Theunis Smit, horticulturalist with Mayo Macs. The good news is that stinkbug populations are unusually low for this time of year, Smit tells FreshPlaza.

Another factor that hampers South African macadamia production, is theft. Industry estimates are that about 30% of the annual harvest is lost to theft, both in the orchards and at warehouses and processing plants. As a low-volume, high-value crop, as yet under-represented in the South African market (less than 1% of local production is destined for domestic production), it attracts unwelcome attention.

One way to address the problem is through cultivar selection: a popular macadamia cultivar in South Africa is Beaumont which does not drop its nuts, but holds them fast. While this might be seen as a drawback, it has the advantage that it deters thieves who look for nuts that are easily and quickly gathered up. Beaumont (known for very high yield and average quality) therefore has to be sprayed with Ethephon, the growth regulator, whereafter nuts are dropped within ten to twelve days and can be gathered up at once. Apart from human thieves, bush pigs are also deterred by nuts that remain up in the tree, Smit says.

Most of the stolen macadamias make their way to the South African retail sector, even to the formal sector, where consumers are sometimes put off from macadamias due to poor quality, chewy nuts. Even macadamia production chemicals and processing equipment are stolen. The South African Macadamia Growers’ Association is engaging with various stakeholders to address the problem.

However, for the moment most farmers will be satisfied with average harvest volumes which will, as usual, find keen buyers in the Far East, the EU and the USA. According to Wessel Lemmer, economist with ABSA Agribusiness, 87% of the South African harvest went to Hong Kong and Vietnam in 2015, earning R1.2 billion (almost €84 million), with the rest going to the EU and the USA, to a further value of R1.1 billion (€76 million). From these figures it can be seen that the value of macadamias going to the EU and the USA is higher, and that is because these are shelled nuts. Traditionally China has preferred nuts-in-shell, but the market is slowly moving towards importing more macadamia kernels from South Africa.

South Africa is increasingly competing with Kenya in macadamia production, as the harvest volumes and quality of the latter have been improving. Kenyan macadamia nuts go primarily to the USA at a lower price, which South Africa - due to higher production and labour costs – cannot equal.

Macadamia production is continually increasing, with sugar cane farmers in KwaZulu-Natal reverting to the crop, while some old forestry plantations in the Lowveld are planted with macadamia orchards. The supply of young macadamia trees barely meets demand.