This week sees the listing of two larger macadamia farms in Queensland in the newer established growing areas.
Traditionally the industry was in the northern region of the NSW Coast and the Qld Sunshine Coast but, climate, water and land further north made the industry look at the economies of scale available.
Up at Mackay there is a 32,000 tree farm going to Auction in August and at Bundaberg a 16,600 tree plantation is going to Tender late August. These farms are both irrigated and have been planted basically over the past 12 years with newer higher yielding varieties. With the macadamia nut price at record high levels these are strong income producing properties and will attract buyer interest across family and corporate operators.
In the past 2 years there has been strong interest from corporates wishing to purchase larger operations in the nut industry to secure supply as competition grows between processors.
Back over the border there is a range of smaller farms in the market with much older tree varieties around the pioneering areas of nut growing areas such as Alstonville and Dunoon.