East Australian Floods Delay Macadamia Harvest

Heavy rain and flooding across much of the east coast of Australian has delayed macadamia harvest by up to one month. Normally, Macadamia harvest would commence mid-February followed by the release of the nut in shell farm gate prices. The heavy rain growers have not been able to access their trees to commence harvest and much of the ripe and nearly ripe nuts have been knocked off the trees and washed away in flood waters. It may be up to two weeks before growers can get harvest equipment into the orchards and much of the fruit is heavily water logged and will need more time in the drying tanks before they can be delivered for processing to kernel.

It is thought that the flooding may have taken out up to 10% of the Northern NSW total Macadamia production which could translate to a national production loss of up to 3-4% and this may be reflected in the, soon to be released, farm gate prices.
Therefore, it is foreshadowed that the first nuts to leave Australian shores may not be till the last half (LH) May or the first half (FH) June.