SAMAC macadamia crop forecast 2022

The 2021 South African macadamia crop was unfortunately still affected by hot and dry conditions that prevailed for several years. Although most orchards are irrigated, water usage was restricted in certain areas, which together with very high temperatures contributed significantly to physiological stress experienced by many orchards.

It is a well-known fact that trees growing under these conditions have a compromised immune response to many insects and diseases, which further exacerbated the low-yield problem.

The final crop of 2021 was 53 585 tonnes of inshell macadamias (measured at 1,5% moisture content). Compared to the 2020 crop, the industry's production increased with 4 660 tonnes in 2021.

The feedback from the various provinces looks very positive at the moment and SAMAC hopes that 2022 will be a prosperous macadamia year.

Mpumalanga Prospects for the new season look very optimistic as certain parts of the production region already received ± 750 mm of rain by mid-January 2022. The rain was generally evenly distributed throughout the season, but there was some infrastructure and hail damage in the Mbombela / Nelspruit area. Farms around Mbombela / Nelspruit are generally very wet and farmers struggle with access in their orchards for spraying operations.

Despite some initial negative sentiment regarding the effect of cool moist days on flowering and subsequent nutset, quite the opposite is true, and farmers can look forward to a significant improvement over the previous season.

Stink bug numbers appear to be on par for this time of the year, but Tortricidae moth damages on susceptible cultivars appeared to increase considerably. Thrip numbers are down, which is consistent with scientific reports indicating low damage levels during wet seasons. While it is too early for an assessment of the macadamia felted coccid, initial reports indicate that some new farms in the White River and Brondal areas are infested.

Surprisingly husk rot damage is not as severe as expected for a wet year, but the low disease incidence could possibly be ascribed to diligent spray programmes during critical periods. The very wet conditions may lead to higher incidence of Phytophthora, but the magnitude of this will only be determined in a few months' time.

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal experienced a very good rainfall season with rains starting early and continuing through into January 2022. The high number of rain days during November and December 2021 did reduce heat units but there was a good increase in heat units in January 2022 as the rains subsided. Some areas on the north coast were hit by hail over December 2021, causing some crop loss.

In terms of the 2022 crop, producers are very positive to see a much better set than last year. The Beaumont crop is definitely looking better than in 2021, with better crop across the country. The younger Beaumont trees, which flowered earlier than the mature trees on the South Coast, set a significantly better crop, indicating the possible negative impacts of the extreme hot weather of 45°C late in 2021and early continuous rains (blossom blight). The other hybrids, A4 and Nelmak 2, have also set very well in both young and older orchards. The Integ cultivars are looking very good, especially 344, 814 and 816 with young 5-7-year-old 816's setting particularly well.

Nut borer has been an issue on the KwaZulu-Natal coastal areas with spikes in numbers. Stink bug numbers have been fairly typical up to now with no big spikes in scouting numbers being reported.

Limpopo Macadamia growers in the Limpopo province are generally, although carefully, optimistic about this seasons' crop. Unfortunate hail events in the Letaba region have impacted some growers. However, most of the Limpopo production regions are seeing good sets reaching maturity. Producers have received good early season rains with generally good conditions for fruit set.

With ± 520 mm rain since last year, the season holds potential for good yields, and the strong summer flush stores energy reserves for coming seasons. An estimated 20% more macadamia tonnes could come out of Limpopo this season, compared to the last year.

The harvesting season might hold a lot of rainy days, which highlights the importance of fast turn-around times, and not to leave nuts on the ground for too long. It also makes late stink bug damage control more difficult as equipment often cannot enter the orchards due to too wet soils. Trends of unsound kernel recovery rates have, however, showed proof for better stink bug management in the Province over the past three seasons.

Western Cape/George area Macadamia growers in the Western Cape are a bit unsure with the weather patterns as it was fairly cold during December 2021and then very hot and dry in January 2022, which made the nuts very slowly to set. The flowering time was not synchronised and flowers bloomed at different times causing some uncertainty regarding the harvest. This is the newest macadamia growing area and the farmers remain positive.