Although macadamias make up only around 1% of the nut market, the sector is growing and the recent purchase of the Dunoon Macadamia Plantations near Lismore in northern NSW, for between $18 million and $20 million, is testimony to this. The nut grower and exporter Discovery Macadamia bought the farm in one of the biggest recent deals for the burgeoning horticultural sector.
The plantations cover 545 hectares across four adjoining farms with 109,000 mature trees. They were put up for sale in 2013 by the Australian division of one of the largest institutional managers of agricultural real estate in the US, Hancock Farm Company.
Discovery Macadamia is a private syndicate of Chinese-born investors, who already own and manage 140 hectares of macadamia orchards near Eureka, 20 kilometres east of Dunoon.
Alex Yong, an assistant director at Discovery, said, "We sell our nuts to processor MPC in Lismore and Stahmann Farms in Toowoomba and we also export the nuts in shell to China."
The sale was brokered by Jez McNamara, a director at Ray White Rural Queensland. He said rising macadamia prices - up from $3 a kilogram in 2011 to $5 in 2016 - had driven renewed interest in the sector.
'Macadamias have gone from being a niche market 10 years ago to a broadscale market now. I'm working with a number of people looking to purchase macadamia orchards," he said.
Last month, listed agricultural property trust, Rural Funds Group announced its first entry into macadamias, buying 259 hectares of orchards near Bundaberg in Queensland. Most of the orchards will be leased to the 2007 Macgrove Project, a managed investment scheme for growers.
The Australian Macadamia Society said Australia is the world's biggest macadamia producer, with the 2016 harvest forecast at 47,000 tonnes.
About 70 per cent of nuts are exported annually, worth about $120 million.
Source: stockandland.com.au
