It takes approximately 4 years from a tree seedling is planted before it starts yielding nuts.
Harvesting
The yearly Kenyan harvesting season starts in March. Most of the macadamia farming is done in small scale farms.
Nut Collection
Farmers sell their nuts to the factory owned by themselves through a cooperative society, via over 800 collection points in the farming districts.
At the Factory
The core aim of the factory is “to improve the living standards of families living in the district of Embu, the surrounding districts as well as Kenya as a whole”.
In order to meet this goal, the factory offers the following services to their farmers:
Buying the nuts for processing
Selling the nuts to the international market through Global Nuts
Ltd and others
Education on growing and harvesting
Financial assistance
Provision of quality grafted macadamia seedlings
Screening
Upon reaching the factory the nuts in shell are washed, weighed and sorted based on their size.
Drying
The nuts are then loaded into drying bins where they are dried in controlled temperatures for 8 to 10 days, until their moisture content is reduced to about 1.5%. The drying bins use steam heated air as the main drying agent, which is pumped through the drying bins.
To reduce the impact on the environment, we use the cracked nut shells as fuel for the furnace that boils the water to produce the drying steam.
Cracking
The dried nuts are then fed into electrical crackers that crack the nuts and distribute the kernels into four different grades.
Sorting
A final sorting is done in a sterilized environment by hand. Any substandard nuts, as well as any pieces of shell that might have made it past the winnow system of the cracker, is removed.
Packing
The kernels are then packed as per each client’s specifications, and made ready for pick-up.
Transportation
The macadamia nuts are then transported to our clients around the world. The shells are being sold locally as fuel, thus saving the environment.
Customers
Finally, our macadamia nuts are being enjoyed by people around the world!
