Macadamias are the only global agricultural product to have come out of Australia. They are also creamy, buttery, tasty, delicious, and from our own local area here in South-East Queensland. so why oh why are they the most expensive nut? (well, except for Pistachios at the moment).
There are several factors that contribute to our favourite nut's price tag:
1. Time! Macadamias grow slowly for a commercial food crop. The trees take around 7 years to mature, and the nuts themselves on the tree take a couple of years to mature as well. So there is no quick profit to be made if you are into growing macadamias!
2. Picky ecology. Macadamia trees require a fairly precise balance of heat, wet and well drained soil. This means that there are limited geographical areas where it is even possible to grow them as a viable crop. And these areas tend to be where other valuable (and maybe much easier to manage!) crops can also grow, such as avocados, coffee and cacao.
3. Nuts in cunning disguise. Most nut crops let you know fairly clearly when they are ripe and ready for harvesting, and also if a shell even contains a fully developed nut. Macadamias play their cards closer to their chest - you cannot tell from looking at a nut in shell whether the kernel inside is even there or not, or if is ready for harvesting. This makes harvesting time-consuming, labour intensive and leads to considerable wastage.
4. Armour coating. All nuts have a fairly hard shell in order to protect their nutritious bounty from keen scavengers and pests. Macadamias take this protection to a whole new level, with a shell that requires 300 pounds of pressure to crack. This results in a lot of damage to the kernel inside during commercial cracking. The sought after whole macadamia kernels are therefore in even shorter supply.
5, Whole kernels cannot be counted on. Many macadamia nuts - over 50% - do not even grow to contain whole kernels, with only half the nut developing or less.
6. Supply and demand. In good old capitalist style, one of the bottom lines is simple supply and demand. Not so many places grow macadamias commercially. Macadamias are one of the most recent commercial crops to have been developed, with the first plantations yielding crops only in the 1950s in Hawaii. China is fast catching on to the delicious and nutritious value of macadamias, thus increasing the demand on the limited global market even more. Apparently China is now looking to plant their own macadamia crops, so this may change the situation later on down the track.
7. Organics. Growing macadamias organically is particularly challenging. There is one particular pest that targets young developing flowers, that is extremely simple to treat conventionally (with very toxic and widespread spraying) but is tricky to deal with organically. Organic farmers also face difficulties with access to processing facilities that will process certified organic nut in shell. These two factors make for a massive headache for organic macadamia growers, and explain why in recent years many organic growers have given up. This in turn means even less supply to meet our demand.
In a nutshell: When you look into it, there are some good reasons why our favourite and most Australian nut is so expensive. This may change in the coming years as more plantations open up elsewhere in the world - but to be honest, I for one will not be holding my breath for that to happen.