First look: Inside Macadamias Australia’s new $25m nut cracking facility
In the heart of Queensland cane country, the family behind a $25 million new nut factory has led the way for farmers switching from sugar and other traditional crops. SEE THE VIDEO.
Bundaberg
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A family-owned macadamia company is cracking on with business growth, opening a new multimillion-dollar factory on Friday.
The $25 million, 8600m2 cracking facility at Alloway includes new specialised macadamia processing machinery for receival, drying, cracking and value-adding, as well as a tourism section to provide an educational experience for visitors.
The Steinhardt family behind Macadamias Australis has a 60-year history of growing produce in the Bundaberg region having started out with peanuts, corn, tobacco, sugar cane and a variety of vegetables.
In 1980, they moved into large scale production of tomatoes and zucchinis and in 2004 they planted macadamias.
Now they have more than 220,000 trees and will harvest around 3,000 tonnes of nut-in-shell each year.
The business has established long term export markets in over 15 countries for bulk kernel and retail products including Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Middle East, Vietnam and Korea.
Macadamias Australia Director Janelle Gerry said the opening of the facility was a special day for the family.
“We have planned this facility for many, many years,” she said.
“We saw a need that there was going to be a shortage of processing facilities with the ongoing plantings in the region.
“To see our plans come to fruition today, we are beyond excited.”
Ms Gerry said the facility was built with growth in mind and would be able to process 9000 tonnes of macadamias.
“From our farms we produce 3000 so we’re really looking forward to partnering with like-minded growers and we’ll be able to crack many nuts from this region long into the future,” she said.
“At this stage we have about 15 local, quality growers who have partnered with us already and we’re really thankful for the commitment they’ve made to us already but there’s plenty of room for more growers to come on board.”
She said the company was always looking at ways to continue value adding to their nuts to further the product.
“We’re very focused on value adding, we really want to do more with macadamia nuts we don’t want to just sell the kernel around the world we want to value add them further,” she said.
“That in turn really provides a certainty for the growers on pricing for the future.”
The company is also proud of its zero waste operations with every part of the macadamia being used from shell to nut.
“With every macadamia processed you produce a number of different styles so the wholes go to confectionary, the chipped product goes into cookies and ice cream so there really is a home for everything,” Ms Gerry said.
“Then the waste automatically goes to oil and the shell we are doing wonderful things with that to power heat and electricity for the plant.
“We’re very conscious about our environment, we’re a family that really values sustainability so the whole circular economy has been something we’ve been focused on right from the planning stages.”
Hinkler MP Keith Pitt officially opened and toured the new factory on Friday.
The Australian Government provided $4.68 million towards the $25 million project from the Wide Bay Burnett Regional Jobs and Investment Package (RJIP).
“Bundaberg is the largest macadamia growing region in Australia producing over 20,000 tonnes annually with local production set to increase to 35,000 tonne in the next 10 years based on today’s plantings,” he said.
“This project will provide an outlet for over 9,000 tonne of nut annually for cracking and value adding and will enable Macadamias Australia to create a range of innovative products for both its domestic and overseas markets.
“As well as the 29 jobs during construction, an additional 93 ongoing jobs have been created with this expansion, which is a fantastic outcome for local employment opportunities.”
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Originally published as First look: Inside Macadamias Australia’s new $25m nut cracking facility
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