Harvesting is underway on macadamia orchards across Australia but after record high prices in recent years, farmers are now facing a financial disaster.
Over the past few years, the global oversupply has forced farmgate prices to plummet from record highs of more than $6 a kilogram nut-in-shell to below $2 this year.
Rowan Liebmann, who farms at Rous near Lismore, says the cost of production will be double what he receives for his crop.
"It'll probably cost us over $3 a kilogram to produce the nuts. We're going to get less than $1.50," he said.
While his supplier Marquis Macadamias is offering a notional price of $1.70, he says penalties will result in some growers getting below $1.50 — a price not seen since 2007.
"At this point in the season, it's actually worth picking the nuts up for whatever you get," he said.
"But it really means that, over the next 12 months, we'll have to pay for the pleasure of driving around and looking after our trees."
Marquis Macadamias chief executive Ben Adams declined to comment on prices or any plans to drive its recovery.
Some growers have had to take off-farm jobs, cut back on orchard nutrition or bulldoze trees, while others have decided to sell up.
An estimated 20 to 50 macadamia orchards across the industry are on the market, valued at up to $100 million.
But there are still keen buyers, despite property prices easing due to the macadamia price crashing this year.
Alstonville real estate agent Noel Outerbridge has 15 for sale, with eight of those listed in the past few months.
"There'll be more coming through," he said.
"I've got another one I'll be listing towards the end of this week.
"I've already got a number of buyers who are in the industry very keen to look at it because it is a big tonnage commercial property.
"With the softening of prices, it's certainly a good time to buy."
No cheap nuts, yet
What hasn't shifted is the price of macadamias in major supermarkets, with kernels retailing in excess of $40/kg.
Australian Macadamia Society chief executive Clare Hamilton-Bate said it would take time for the prices to flow through.
"A lot of the stock we're seeing on the shelf in the supermarket would've gone into the supply chain at a higher price," she said.
In the next five years, the global supply is expected to grow by two-thirds to 500,000 tonnes a year.
Supermarkets are legally prohibited from disclosing whether a price reduction is on the cards.
Woolworths says it has existing contracts in place with processors, while Coles says its price reflects what it pays its supplier in addition to its own processing, transport, labour and packaging costs.
The challenge for the industry now is to create new products and find new markets including the ingredients sector and India.
"That's where the demand creation [comes in], which was so stymied during COVID," Ms Hamilton-Bate said.
"That's our role to get that rolling again and find a home for our nut.
"We've now got a great opportunity to develop new products, to work with manufacturers who in the past might have been a bit nervous about using macadamias because there wasn't that surety of supply."
Macadamias to India
During a recent visit to the Northern Rivers, the chief executive of Mumbai-based Candor Foods Yash Gawdi said macadamias were a little new to his country.
"We love nuts and I think it's the right time to introduce the Indian consumer with macadamia nuts," he said.
"There's definitely a market, the Indian consumer needs some education, and we need to get macadamias into different products for snacking, as ingredients, to suit the Indian palate."
Macadamia trees are still being planted across key growing regions suggesting confidence in the industry that prices will be bounce back.
Managing director of 2te Robbie Commens is hopeful that a sharp rise in prices will follow the recent sharp decline.
"We've just finished a couple of projects along the South Ballina peninsula from growers that saw the attractions and the benefits to go into macadamias, and they converted from sugar cane and converted from cattle," he said.
