South Africa is consolidating its position as the world's biggest macadamia nut producer with consistent new plantings expected over the next five years. 

The country currently produces some 43,000 metric tons (MT) of the in-shell tree nut annually, from an area of approximately 19,000 hectares.

South African Subtropical Growers' Association CEO Derek Donkin told www.freshfruitportal.com the hectarage had been increasing steadily in recent years and the trend looked set to continue.

"We are seeing plantings at a rate of 750 to 1,000 hectares per annum," Donkin said.

"I think over the next five years we're expecting production to increase at the same rate that it has over the last three or four years."

The growers are predominantly spread out over the north-eastern provinces of Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.

Australia is the world's second biggest macadamia nut producer, and South Africa's biggest competition in international markets. The next largest growers are Kenya and Hawaii.

Around 95% of the South Africa crop is exported to a variety of global destinations.

"Our main destinations would be the Far East - so China, Japan, Vietnam - followed by the USA and then the EU," Donkin said.

"We've been exporting to China for a number of years and it's gone in cycles for a while."

Donkin added that while there was very strong demand for the nuts worldwide, one of the biggest challenges facing the industry was working out how to make sure it continued to rise along with the country's production.

"We want to maintain the demand there is and grow that demand," he said.

"So I think the challenge over the next five to 10 years is good marketing channels and also good consumer education - to educate consumers as to why they should be eating macadamia nuts, and what macadamia nuts are, why they're good to eat, and how you can use them in various different ways in food."

Although there are two main types of macadamia nuts - integrifolia and hybrids - there is rarely any differentiation between the two for the purposes of trade and retail apart from when they are sold for roasting.

"It's not like fruit where say with apples you have Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Cripps etcetera. When they're sold in the trade you don't really sell them by variety," Donkin said.

"Some roasters may ask for integrifolia over hybrids because they have different roasting characteristics, but in general there's not a strong emphasis for the different varieties like there would be for fruit."

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