Overview of Macadamia in Malawi

Early 1960s

Macadamia was introduced into Malawi with the seed of M. integrifolia and M. tetraphylla and these were established at the Bvumbwe Agricultural Research Station (BARS) in the early 1960s. The trees did well and commercial varieties (246, 508, 333 and 660) were introduced and established at BARS and Namingomba Estate was the first planting of scale followed by other estates and some small-scale plantings. Macadamia was planted in part to fill poorer quality land and as a replacement for Tung oil that was in decline due to competition from petroleum alternatives. Namingomba built the first processing plant to produce quality kernels for local and export to the UK initially. A credit to Namingomba and to the Emmott family for establishing and managing this pioneering work that put Malawi on the world macadamia map.

Much of the macadamia was interplanted with coffee and initial planting suffered from being a secondary crop or lower down the order to the detriment of sound management. Limited knowledge and experience of the crop also contributed to limiting the productivity of early plantings. Planting sites were diverse with drier lower altitude estates through to higher altitude wetter planting although often on rough terrain not seen as suitable for tea or tobacco. Although trees performed well, the industry required investment to develop a viable production system that addressed key production issues particularly related to pests, nutrition and management of quality.

Late 1980s

This need led to two Australian agronomists arriving in the late 1980s to work with the industry (Ironside and Hancock) supported by the World Bank. This enabled effective support to the young industry to mature providing applied on-farm support in conjunction with training, R&D, extension, and postharvest inputs.  A considerable amount of capacity building and training was part of these inputs for BARs staff and estate staff at different levels with many BARS staff becoming long term Malawian employees on macadamia estates. This initiative provided the technical basis and capacity to support the growth and commercial success of the industry in Malawi

Malawi had a similar pest complex to Australia and South Africa, confirmed by Ironside and a large new bug, Batheocuelia spp identified as a new pest. Analysis of the factory processing data showed a range of issues from the field through to postharvest that had to be addressed to improve production and increase yield and returns. This included varieties, altitude impacts (an early proxy for climate change impacts now widely seen), nutrition, postharvest and tree size/yield relationships. Plantings at lower altitudes struggled with high temperatures and areas with excessive rainfall, indicating the importance of altitude in climate modification necessary for a subtropical understory tree.

The early pioneers made a very important decision to focus on kernel quality and known varieties that had that quality. This meant that production would focus on quality kernels suitable for the international market. While this excluded most M. tetraphylla material at that time, it established Malawi as a producer of the quality kernel and avoided the issues of Kenya where poorer quality kernels and opportunistic buyer/traders still cause reputational issues for kernel quality starting with immature nut harvest.

Larger investments in macadamia led by the old Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC) (established Kawalazi, Sable and Ngapani Estates) supported the introduction of new varieties with Chris Pane prominent in this work. As the area planted grew and advances in processing technology became more available, new factories were built including Kawalazi and Eastern Produce followed by Lujeri and others. Malawi was now an established macadamia producer and exporter with a reputation for high-quality nut production. 

Expansion came in distinct phases and more recently new areas away from the original Thyolo areas have changed the face of macadamia and new challenges have and will continue to emerge from these growing areas from Ekwendeni in the north to close to the Zambia border areas and closer to Lilongwe. These new farms in new agroecological zones have macadamia as their principal crop, revising the varietal make-up and utilising a production system more reliant upon irrigation. These innovations mark a new phase of the development of the industry with rapid growth in area under the crop guaranteeing future gains in exports. However, these developments also pose new technical and commercial challenges alongside the need to develop a new generation of employees to manage the crop. Small and medium-sized farms have increased as well, spread throughout the regions.

The Tree Nut Growers Association constituted in the ’50s represented the interests of macadamia and cashew industries. Although over time the makeup of tree nut crops has shifted towards macadamia as Malawian agribusinesses focused on this profitable high value crop. The TNGA brought key industry players together and provided a forum to discuss industry wide issues, collect statistics. However, as the industry has grown and diversified the need to provide a more inclusive body to include diverse geographies and able to meet the rising needs of the industry emerged. A decision was made in 2021 to reconstitute the organization with a more defined macadamia mandate and become more proactive in the representation and promotion of the industry. The renewed constitution provides the basis to increase resources to professionalize administration, provide a wider range of member services.