About the benchmarking project
The benchmarking project is supporting improved productivity and profitability within the Australian macadamia industry. The current project builds on previous benchmarking and best practice work conducted since 2001.
Yield, quality and planting information has been collected annually from macadamia farms throughout Australia since 2009. These data are provided either directly by growers or by processors on their behalf. Cost of production data has also been collected annually since 2013.
Each season all benchmarking participants receive a confidential, personalised interim and final report that compares their individual farm performance with the average performance of similar farms based on a range of criteria including region, locality, farm size, management structure, irrigation status and tree age. These reports highlight individual and average farm performance trends over multiple seasons.
This industry report has been produced to provide growers, processors, consultants, investors and other industry stakeholders with a summary of yield, quality and cost of production trends within the Australian macadamia industry.
Scope and coverage
This report summarises macadamia farm yield and quality results for the 2009–2020 seasons and production costs for 2013–2020. Many of the yield benchmarks presented are based on tonnes of nutin-shell (NIS) or saleable kernel (SK) per bearing hectare, as these are widely accepted measures of orchard productivity
The report includes data from all major growing regions, and summarises macadamia farm yield and quality results (2009–2021 seasons) and production costs (2013–2021). The 2021 season results include data from 305 farms, totalling 13,251 ha and about 30,303 t of nut-in-shell at 10% moisture. The report is produced as part of the Benchmarking the macadamia industry 2019–2021 project (MC18002), with collected data supporting a range of industry projects and initiatives focused on improving Australian macadamia industry productivity and profitability.
Find out about yield, quality and costs of production trends: