South African Macadamia forecast up 570 tonnes

The Southern African Macadamia Growers’ Association has conducted a final crop forecast survey for the 2017 season. The updated forecast is 42 000 tons of nut-in shell (1.5% kernel moisture content), which is 570 tonnes more than the forecast that was issued in May due to higher participation from handlers in the industry.

The macadamia industry is still suffering from the effects of a severe drought that led to a crop of 38,000 tons in 2016, compared to 46,000 tons that were produced in 2015. It is evident that the Limpopo Province is under more constraint and many handlers have submitted a lower forecast for this province than previously.

In contrast, Mpumalanga Province has a slightly higher forecast, which could be due to the many new plantings that have come into production for the first time, since it remains the province with the most new plantings annually and also because the Lowveld of Mpumalanga is the main producing region due to having the most hectares planted to macadamias.

Mr Walter Giuricich, chairman of SAMAC, encouraged the industry to process more macadamias to kernel in order to satisfy the high demand.

“Some of the country’s highest quality macadamias are being exported as inshell, whereas lower quality nuts are often processed and sorted in order to ensure that high quality products leave South Africa’s shores”, Giuricich said.

Approximately 49% of the crop is expected to be processed to kernel this year, as opposed to 64% that was processed to kernel in 2016.

For more information:
Barry Christie
Tel: +27 73 084 1772
barry@subtrop.co.za
www.samac.org.za