Hawaii Farmers Struggle As Worldwide Macadamia Market Goes Nuts 0 Ad campaigns and DNA testing seek to drive buyers toward real Hawaiian macadamias.
It’s a time-honored ritual for people traveling from Hawaii: a visit to the local grocery, ABC Store or Long’s Drugs to pick up boxes, bags and cans of macadamia nuts to deliver to friends and family as gifts – treats grown in the sun, soil and rain of Hawaii.
But now Hawaii’s most iconic macadamia nut brands are significantly scaling back their purchases of Hawaii-grown nuts. Instead, shipping records indicate, South Africa and Kenya have become big suppliers.
Hawaiian Host Group, which also owns the brand, earlier this year informed Big Island macadamia nut farmers that it was temporarily shutting down its Big Island processing facility in Keaau, “for at least a year or two,” due to costly problems involving a 50-year-old boiler that burns mac nut shells for fuel.
