Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Macadamia Nuts—a Case Study for a Modern Plantation Crop
Background
The major tree nuts, almonds (  Prunus dulcis ), cashews (  Anacardium occidentale ),
chestnuts (  Castanea sp ), hazelnuts (  Corylus sp ), pecan (  Carya illinoinensis ), pine
nuts (Pinus sp), pistachios (  Pistacia vera ), macadamia (  Macadamia integrifolia) ,
and walnuts (  Jugland regia ) are often neglected when it comes to considering the
world's tree crops. Tree crops such as apples (  Malus domestica ), citrus (  Citrus sp ),
oil palm (  Elaeis guineensis ), rubber (  Hevea brasiliensis ), coffee (  Coffea arabica )
and tea (Camellia sinensis ) dominating the discussion when it comes to the areas
devoted to production and their value to world trade. However, this situation is
rapidly changing as the tonnage of nuts in world trade rapidly increases (Table 8.2 ).
Nut crops have rarely been brought into discussions surrounding 'plantation crops'
as they did not share many of the same characteristics such as foreign ownership,
tropical locations and a history of slave or low cost labour. However, since the 1950s
some of the major nuts crops have taken on a few of the characteristics of 'planta-
tion crops' such as large single-crop focused monocultures with an emphasis on the
economies of scale. This is particularly true of the almond industry which is dominat-
ed by production originating from California. In 2011/2012 California produced 80 %
of the world's production; an estimated 887,679 t of kernel from 315,662 bearing
hectares (Duerr 2012 ). Almond production in California consists of both privately and
corporately owned large orchards and is highly mechanized. In contrast, Brazil nuts
are still largely harvested by hand from the rainforests of Bolivia, Peru and Brazil.
Introduction to Macadamia
Macadamia is one of the smallest tree nuts in terms of global nut production and, un-
like many of the other nuts it is almost entirely grown in the tropics and sub-tropics.
Macadamias have experienced a large increase in production, 167 % between 2002
and 2011, and comprise around 1 % of total tree nut production (INC database 2012 ).
Australia has been the leading producer since early in the century but, its share has
declined over the last 5 years with South Africa now the number one producer. Af-
rica now accounts for almost 50 % of the world's production (Fig. 8.23 ). There is
also substantial emerging production in China and Brazil.
The emergence of competing producers in low labour cost regions, such as in Af-
rica, has been one of the major factors that has placed pressure on some Australian
producers to move to a plantation system of production. While there are still ele-
ments of the Australian macadamia industry that are still smallholder-based, the
majority of Australian production is moving towards large agro-industrial, highly
focused, capital intensive, single crop, plantation style systems of production.
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