As the Australian horticulture sector expands, Discovery Macadamia has acquired the Dunoon Macadamia Plantations in northern New South Wales from U.S. Hancock Farm Company for approximately $20 million, according to Farm Weekly. Discovery Macadamia, a nut growing and exporting company, is a private syndicate of Chinese investors who own and manage 140 hectares of macadamia orchards near Eureka. This deal will add 545 hectares across four farms with 109,000 mature trees to the group’s holdings.

 

'Macadamias have gone from being a niche market 10 years ago to a broadscale market now,” said Jez McNamara, director at Ray While Rural Queensland who brokered the deal, to Farm Weekly.  “I'm working with a number of people looking to purchase macadamia orchards."

 

Australian macadamias have been sparking increased investor interest as prices have climbed from $3 per kilogram in 2011 to $5 per kilogram in 2016. The Land reports that just last month, the listed agricultural property trust, Rural Funds Group announced its first acquisition of a macadamia property with the purchase of 259 hectares of orchards in Queensland. The firm plans to lease the acreage to the managed grower investment scheme – the 2007 Macgrove Project.

 

Australia is the top macadamia producing country in the world according to the Australian Macadamia Society, with about 70% of the country’s output, worth about $120 million, being exported every year. Discovery Macadamia states that it plans to sell its nuts to MPC, a processors in Lismore, and to Stahmann Farms in Toowoomba. The company also plans to export its macadamia’s in-shell to China, according to The Australian Dairy Farmer.