A new system for dehusking and sorting macadamias will provide better returns for growers, reduce their losses and improve the quality of the nuts.
Australia’s largest macadamia processor, the Macadamia Processing Company (MPC), has introduced the system, which allows macadamia farmers to harvest, dehusk and deliver their macadamias immediately to the factory, without the need for on-farm sorting.
MPC General Manager Steve Lee explained that on-farm sorting is a time-consuming and costly exercise for macadamia farmers.
“Since the 1990’s the macadamia industry has approached quality by applying reject penalties in payment systems,” he said.
“This has caused farmers to spend many hours sorting and resorting macadamias on their farm before delivery to the factory.
“It’s a costly process for growers and we felt there had to be a better way.
MPC conducted research which found that if macadamia growers could speed up the interval between nut fall and delivery to the factory, farmers returns would improve.
This could be achieved by removing the on-farm sorting process, and would also improve both the taste and texture of the macadamias, meaning happier consumers.
“The sooner growers deliver their nuts to the factory the higher the macadamia kernel quality attained and the higher amount of usable kernel achieved,” Lee said.
“We see the new system as a win for both the grower and the consumer.”
MPC’s new cleaning machinery works by removing trash, rock and rejects from consignments before they are sampled and placed in silos, then using state-of-the-art kernel colour sorters, all rejects that were formerly removed by on-farm hand sorting are removed.