Australian Macadamia Projection Cut by 10% Due to Severe Weather

On May 9, the Australian Macadamia Society announced a 10% downward reduction in its 2022 crop forecast on account of heavy rains and flooding in New South Wales and Queensland.

According to the society’s news release, the revised estimates are as follows:

The forecast is now 49,340 tonnes in-shell @ 3.5% (52,900 tonnes in-shell @ 10% moisture), down from the original figure of 54,930 tonnes in-shell @ 3.5% (58,900 tonnes in-shell @ 10% moisture).

The severe weather’s impact was felt unevenly in different growing regions, with the main producing region unscathed:

Growing regions affected by the severe weather in March include Glass House Mountains and Gympie in Queensland, and the Northern Rivers and Mid North Coast regions of NSW.

AMS CEO Jolyon Burnett said NSW growers were impacted the hardest, and the prolonged rainfall which followed the two flooding events had made harvest more difficult.

“Many growers in the Northern Rivers and Nambucca have still been not able to access their orchard to begin harvest,” said Mr. Burnett.

“It’s a critical time for these growers and there are uncertain and challenging times ahead. There is a lot of crop on the ground, but orchard floors are extremely wet and grass is overgrown. There have also been fewer hot sunny days to dry everything out.”

Mr. Burnett said “The severe weather conditions have also impacted kernel recovery and this will impact the availability of kernel into the market.”

The largest macadamia producing region of Bundaberg (which accounts for around 46% of Australia’s crop) was not impacted by the severe weather. Harvest is well underway in this region.

Other QLD growing regions of Glass House Mountains and Gympie suffered some losses, however Mr. Burnett said that across Queensland generally crop yield is up and quality is good.

China is a key market for Australia’s macadamia exports, accounting for 80% (13,135 tons) of in-shell exports and 37% (2,789 tons) of shelled exports. Australia is also China’s largest supplier of imported macadamias, followed by South Africa. China, meanwhile, has dramatically increased domestic macadamia plantings over the last decade, and already accounted for 14% of total global production by 2020. Large volumes of production were furthermore projected to have been coming online in China during the two seasons since.

Image: Pixabay

This article was translated from Chinese. Read the original article.