From tree to table - a tour of Kenya's biggest macadamia operation

During my visit to Kenya I have been staying at Kakuzi Farms, a 14,000ha farming and commercial forestry operation in Thika, which covers everything from timber production to tea, and blueberries to Boran cattle.
​
This morning I took a tour of their impressive avocado and macadamia plantations, which together cover around 10% of the farms and paid a visit to their state-of-the-art macadamia processing factory.

Kakuzi was originally a sisal and coffee operation, but since the late 90’s and into the early 2000’s, it branched into avocado and macadamia production, the temperate climate and red clay soils lending themselves to a perfect growing environment for these types of production.

Since 2018, a brand-new macadamia factory has been built which can process in peak harvest a maximum of 25T of nuts daily with the majority being exported to Asia, but some nuts processed for local consumption. All nuts leaving the factory are vacuum sealed into 11.34kg bags and are sold to Green & Gold Macadamias, who distribute them to buyers for further value addition e.g. roasting or different packaging requirements.

I arrived at the factory in mid-September, coinciding with the second crop of the year, with macadamia typically being harvested between February and July and August and December. Traditionally, 70% of the nuts are harvested in the first block of the year but due to a sustained drought and various other factors, Kakuzi has recorded a reduced production in the first block of the season and a flush in the latter.

Growing Macadamias

The ideal growing conditions for macadamia are well aerated, clay soils which lend themselves to good water retention. I was told that they have shallow roots and perform well in regions where coffee thrives.

The nursery growing stage takes one year, all seedlings are grafted, and it is a very labour intensive process in the early months, because the plants are very susceptible to pests such as millibugs, spider mites, blight and powdery mildew.

Macadamias are planted in the main plantations on the farm at one year old and although there is still work ongoing to measure the perfect spacing between trees and rows, they are currently planted on a 5x10m spacing. This allows for adequate spacing between the canopy, so when the tree is sprayed with chemical fertilisers it is blown into the canopy of the trees, instead of just the leaves.

Micro sprinklers are used to irrigate every tree, which are fed from 18 man-made dams which surround the whole site. The first fruit comes four years post-planting, but the plant reaches maturity and optimum picking around 7 or 8 years old. They are harvested by hand using long bamboo sticks with a hook on the end made from a U-shaped nail. They are individually harvested so not to disturb the other nuts which haven’t reached maturity. I was told they do not shake the trees to dislodge the nuts because you can risk destroying next year’s crop.

During peak harvest, there are 1000 pickers that work across three main macadamia sites covering 1040ha – plans are underway to extend the operation to 1500ha. All workers begin picking at 7am till 3pm and are expected to pick an average of 150kg daily. Kakuzi’s wider operation employs around 3000 people, which in a country where there are exceedingly high levels of unemployment, makes Kakuzi a major employer not only in the region but nationally and through their extension work in the surrounding communities, they support around 100,000 people.
 
Processing macadamias
We arrived at the factory at 0830 in the morning, one hour into processing and we followed the nuts from being brought into the factory operation site where they were de-husked before entering the factory lines, where the shells are separated from the nuts and graded into a number of categories depending on their size or any defects.

The large whole nuts come under grade zero, which is the top grade and sell for a price of around $23 per kilo and then the rest of the nuts are sorted for the likes of confectionary, fruit and nut mixes, baking, ground for flour and used for oil. Nothing is wasted and the shells are processed for the likes of animal feed for chickens and pigs, or they are fed into a biogas boiler and turned into energy to heat the sorting process.

Around 226 kilos are processed every day into oil, which involves the nuts being crushed and the oil extracted, producing around 113kilos of 100% pure macadamia oil. The husks which are discarded at the start, also have a use, and are turned into compost which is then fed back as a biological onto the macadamia plantations. The whole process is very circular in nature, nothing is wasted.
There were 116 people working in the factory this morning, the majority are women, and this is not only because the sorting process requires real dexterity, but because Kakuzi is trying to support low levels of employment, particularly among women.
At numerous stages throughout the sorting process, the machines will sort nuts from the shell, but parts are missed and they are unable to spot e.g onion rings around the more mature nuts or damaged skins which are only detected by the human eye. The factory has the latest in cracking and colour sorting technology, but automation cannot replace human skill and the two work in perfect symbiosis.