Banana Farmers Go Nuts in South Africa Over Macadamia Boom
- Country vies with Australia as biggest macadamia producer
- Farmers planted 7.5 million new macadamia trees last year
Macadamia nuts.
Photographer: Susana Gonzalez/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Booming demand for macadamias is transforming farmland in eastern South Africa, as landowners switch focus from bananas and sugarcane to the creamy nuts used in sweet treats from ice cream to cookies.
First introduced in South Africa in the 1960s, evergreen macadamia nut trees are grown on farms across the Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces, with about 2,000 hectares (5,000 acres) being added every year. The country, which vies with Australia as the top grower and exporter, produced about 28 percent of the world’s total output in 2015, according to data from the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council.