Macadamia Farm Management

Bundaberg

Bundaberg is located about 400 kilometres north of Brisbane and is not only ranked as the city with the most consistent climate, being humid and subtropical but it is also well-known for its healthy soils and fair water availability. These qualities make Bundaberg the ideal location to grow large volumes of high-quality Macadamias. Since its establishment in the late 1800s, the agricultural landscape of Bundaberg has increased so tremendously that it is believed to have the capacity to feed the entire Australian population.

This city contributes a significant portion to the Australian agricultural industry, producing crops that range from Tomatoes to Citrus and everything in between. More significantly, Bundaberg also produces around 76% of Queensland’s Macadamias and 40% of the entire Australian production, making it the largest Macadamia growing region in the country.

When Macadamia Farm Management was founded in 1987, our operations consisted of about 12 orchards, translating to around 480 hectares, which were largely based in Bundaberg. We have since increased our footprint quite significantly to include several neighbouring areas all the way to Gympie.

Today, most of our mature orchards are based in Bundaberg and its surrounding regions, equating to 1 200 hectares of our 3 500-hectare footprint, and we are actively developing new orchards in these regions on an annual basis.

Maryborough

In 2015 we extended our operations to include Maryborough as part of our Macadamia growing regions and we have since developed 650 hectares or around 7 properties here. We employ a team dedicated to the Maryborough developments ranging from experienced production managers to horticultural experts.

Maryborough has seen significant orchard development activity in the last 12 months, with more sugar cane farms being converted. Although most of our Macadamia orchards in Maryborough are still young, a significant number of them will be in full production by 2024, meaning our output will increase to 7 000 tons. This creates the ideal opportunity for us to take hands with established local businesses to develop the economy and uplift the local community.

Our Partners

Macadamia Farm Management was initially established with the vision to develop and manage Macadamia orchards for growers in a manner that would ensure consistent, above-average yields of exceptional quality. Since then, we have diversified our capabilities to become a trusted farm managing enterprise to both local and international investors and we have also been able to form joint ventures with a variety of role players in the Macadamia industry. They specialise in all aspects of the growth and the production of Macadamias, ranging from machinery – and asset holding companies, to state-of-the-art sorting facilities.

The goodwill we have established over the years and our partnerships with various entities in the agricultural industry, enable us to provide our investors with turnkey solutions, thereby allowing them to grow world-class businesses that offer them a long-term secure market position.

In addition to managing the orchards and land development operations for our investors, we are also appointed to manage several agricultural asset-holding entities that own machinery and other agricultural inputs to service our investors. The operational costs of these entities are shared between our investors based on a hectares planted ratio. This enables even our smallest growers to have access to ground-breaking technology, without needing to break the bank for asset acquisition – and maintenance costs. These entities also contract assets out to other independent agricultural operations, when not used or required by our investors. This further reduces the inputs that may be required by investors, as they are able to maintain their own operational – and asset acquisition costs by utilising income derived from servicing independent clients.

To be fully capable of providing our clients with all the services it takes to manage and grow a Macadamia investment, we have fostered partnerships with Macadamia transportation and processing entities. This allows our investors’ harvested nuts to be collected from the orchard to be sorted and processed for the local and export markets. These entities, Bundy Skip Bins and Bundy Sort, are both managed by Macadamia Farm Management, meaning that we have the opportunity to set the bar for quality and service delivery.

Bundy Sort was established when one of the asset-holding entities managed by Macadamia Farm Management, Bundaberg Macadamias, joined forces with a well-known local giant, Bundy Sugar, to form a state-of-the-art processing facility that provides drying and sorting services to both investors and the greater local Macadamia growing community.

We are greatly dependent on our support network and, with the rapid expansion of our operations, new joint ventures and partnering opportunities arise every season. We believe that much like sustainable agricultural practices will ensure the continued yield and quality from our orchards, our alliances with like-minded entities and individuals, allow us to share expertise and tackle industry challenges, which in turn will enable us to maintain our success.