ŮŝŵĂƚĞ ĐŚĂŶŐĞ ĂīĞĐƚƐ ŵĂĐĂĚĂŵŝĂ LJŝĞůĚƐ

XTREME weather conditions have reportedly impacted macadamia yields in both SA and Australia during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, with mixed messages coming from Kenyan producers who seem to be on a boom or bust trajectory, depending on access to export markets.

SA is the largest producer of macadamia nuts in the world, followed by Australia and Kenya respectively.

The domestic crop is largely exported to China, the European Union and the United States.

While the SA crop is expected to top the 2020 production low of 48 925 tons in-shell nuts by 11% (measured at 1.5% moisture content), yields are still below the 2019 figure of 59 050 tons in-shell measured at 1.5% moisture content.

In its recently released revised forecast, SA’s macadamia representative body, SAMAC, said the consolidated figures received from its member handlers and processors for the first two quarters of the 2021 season indicated a forecast of 54 174 tons.

SAMAC said while the season had looked promising at the beginning, despite the very cold winter in 2020, unseasonal rain at critical times during flowering had resulted in significant flower blight, which had then impacted on the nut set.

Beaumont yield down

As in 2020, Beaumonts seemed to be the worst affected, with yield significantly down in Nelspruit and on the KZN north coast.

Andrew Sheard, Technical Manager at Mayo Macs in KZN, said what was concerning about the Beaumont crop on the north coast was the particularly poor total kernel recovery, which he pegged at 3.6% lower than last year.

Group Agricultural Technical Manager at the Green Farms Nut Company, Barry Christie, agreed the Beaumont variety had performed poorly across the producing regions.

‘Two weeks of cold, wet weather through most production regions in October last year resulted in poor pollination and an explosion of Cladosporium spp fungus on the flowers.’

‘Other cultivar yields were also down, particularly 816s, with high nut borer populations spotted early in the year.

‘I suspect this resulted in many nuts aborting prematurely,’ Christie said.

‘We also saw an increase in immaturity in the crop coming into the factory, which I would ascribe to the nut borer problem.’

Turning to the impact of climate change, Christie said the influence of adverse meteorological events was a concerning reality, particularly over the past two years.

‘Floods, drought and heat during flowering, cold and wet weather during flowering, frost that damaged hundreds of hectares last year and the high nut borer population we saw earlier this year, was the highest ever as far as I am aware and probably linked to the vagaries of the climate,’ he said.

Australia

Similarly, in Australia the 2021 crop forecast was recently revised down by 4.5% from 50 770 to 48 500 tons inshell at 3.5% moisture.

The Australian Macadamia Society said the ‘modest’ reduction was as a direct result of extreme and prolonged rainfall during March and April, resulting in widespread flooding, harvest delays and orchard and infrastructure damage.

The society’s CEO, Jolyon Burnett, said the reduction in yield was also as a direct result of a sustained drought over previous seasons.

‘The nut sizing is more normal this season, while kernel yields are slightly down. Overall, quality is very good however,’ he said.

With global demand for macadamia nuts still on an upward path, Christie warned that demand for transparency around the integrity of production value chains and food safety was intensifying.

‘Food safety has two aspects – chemical and biological.

‘Consumers worldwide are increasingly pressurising agricultural industries to reduce their use of harmful chemicals, coupled with the de-registering of active ingredients in various applications, particularly in the European Union.

‘This places a huge responsibility on our growers and on us as a company, along with all the other processors and exporters in the industry, to make sure our processors are not only of the highest standards but are transparent as well,’ said Christie.

Kenya

In Kenya, media reports suggest the country’s macadamia industry took a massive knock during the Covid-10 pandemic lockdown in last year, but demand was again on the increase as economic activity in the West African country returned to normal.

Business consultant James Torvaney reports that about one million young trees are planted in Kenya annually, however he fails to mention over what period.

Total exports, he says, are at 8 600 tons of kernel a year with about 10 major exporters operational in the country.

In a report commissioned by the Netherlands’ centre for the promotion of imports from developing countries, quality control was highlighted as an obstacle to exports, as well as poor agricultural practices, the impact of climate change and the use of unsuitable or old varieties available to the mainly 200 000 small scale subsistence farmers who grow the crop.