Macadamia season, farmers excited

With suitable climate and soil conditions, macadamia has been grown in Dak Lak for more than 20 years, concentrated in the communes of Dlie Ya, Krong Nang, Phu Xuan, Tam Giang..., with an area of nearly 4,000 hectares, of which over 1,500 hectares are harvested; mainly intercropped in coffee, pepper, and fruit gardens with a density of about 100 trees/ha. This year's output is estimated at over 3,500 tons. Every year, macadamia trees are harvested in the period from June to August.

Mr. Dinh Tat Thang (Giang Minh village, Phu Xuan commune) used to grow coffee intercropped with durian but the economic efficiency was not high. In 2011, realizing that the land and climate here were suitable for macadamia trees, he experimented with planting more than 100 trees intercropped in the coffee garden. By 2013, realizing that the trees were easy to care for, had few pests and diseases, and were suitable for the local climate, he boldly expanded to 400 trees on an area of 1.3 hectares.

Leaders of Phu Xuan commune visited the macadamia growing model of Mr. Dinh Tat Thang's family (Giang Minh village).

According to Mr. Thang, macadamia only requires a lot of investment in the early stages, starting from the 5th year, the tree will start to bear fruit, and the yield will be stable from the 7th year. With 7 tons of fruit harvested this year, after deducting expenses, his family earned about 500 million VND. "Growing macadamia is stable, every year is the same, not as unstable as coffee. Moreover, the output for the product is also very favorable, after harvesting, macadamia can be sold immediately to local production facilities or traders can come to the house to buy," said Mr. Thang.

Similarly, the family of Ms. Vu Thi Hanh (Tam Binh village, Tam Giang commune) also has more than 1 hectare of land growing coffee trees intercropped with pepper. However, due to unstable coffee prices, while pepper trees are difficult to care for and require high investment costs, in 2016 she decided to switch to growing 300 macadamia trees. According to Ms. Hanh, in order to understand the cultivation techniques, the commune government created conditions for her to participate in training courses and visit effective macadamia growing models in other localities to learn from their experiences. “In the near future, my family will plant 1,000 more trees on an area of about 3 hectares. Macadamia requires little care and is not worried about drought, so there are few risks. With the current high and stable selling price, my family has a stable source of income. This year, my family expects to harvest about 4 tons of fruit, after deducting expenses, the profit is about 300 million VND,” Ms. Hanh said happily.

Phu Xuan Commune is one of the localities (after the merger) with a large macadamia growing area in the province with 446 hectares, with an estimated output of 1,327 tons. Mr. Nguyen Tien An, Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee, said: "Determining agricultural production as the strength of the locality, the Commune People's Committee focuses on propagating and mobilizing people to promote solutions to restructure crops towards developing key industrial crops with high economic value and sustainability such as coffee, macadamia, durian... The commune also coordinates with specialized units to provide technical support, link consumption and strongly apply scientific and technical advances in biotechnology, automation technology in planting, caring, harvesting, and processing to help people feel secure in production and increase sustainable income".

In addition to stable prices, macadamia farmers are also excited because macadamia nuts are popular in the market and easy to consume. After harvesting, people can sell them to agents, production facilities, and macadamia processing facilities right in their locality without having to travel far. Many production facility owners are even willing to come to the garden to buy from people.

These days, at Damaca Nguyen Phuong Joint Stock Company (Krong Nang commune), the buying and selling atmosphere is bustling from afternoon to evening when people pick macadamia nuts in the fields and then transport the products to sell to the company immediately. According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu Phuong, director of the company, this year, due to the influence of weather and climate, the productivity of macadamia trees in some key areas of the province is lower than last year, but in return, the output is still high because many new gardens have begun to harvest. In particular, after the merger of the province, the area of macadamia trees in the East (former Phu Yen province) is also about 100 hectares.

Preliminary processing of macadamia nuts at Damaca Nguyen Phuong Joint Stock Company (Krong Nang commune).

“Our company currently purchases products from 25 associated households in the communes of Krong Nang, Dlie Ya, Tam Giang, and Phu Xuan. In addition, the company also cooperates with a number of businesses to purchase macadamia nuts for people in the eastern part of the province. In the coming time, our goal is to expand the area of cooperation to the eastern communes of the province, thereby building a sustainable raw material area that meets export standards, contributing to increasing people's income,” Ms. Thu Phuong shared.

Similarly, this year, An Nhi Macadamia Company Limited (Tam Binh village, Tam Giang commune) also invested in machinery and built a factory to purchase macadamia nuts for farmers in the commune and neighboring localities. Currently, the demand for macadamia nuts in the market is quite large, so during the macadamia harvest season, the company is ready to purchase all output for the people. This year, the company is expected to purchase 200 - 300 tons of nuts for processing and selling to the market.

This year's macadamia harvest season is earlier than in 2024. In addition to purchasing, businesses also directly support farmers with cultivation techniques, instructions on care, harvesting and preliminary processing to ensure standards. This companionship not only helps improve product quality but also builds a sustainable chain of links between growers and businesses, creating a foundation for the goal of developing raw material areas associated with deep processing and exporting to demanding markets.

Macadamia is a forestry tree with high economic value, farmers can completely get rich from this tree. However, for macadamia to become a strength, functional sectors need to have a plan for sub-climate regions, suitable plant varieties and connect output for products. For farmers, when developing macadamia, it is necessary to carefully research the stage of selecting varieties, linking with consumption and production facilities of macadamia nuts for sustainable development.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/kinh-te/202508/mac-ca-vao-vu-nong-dan-phan-khoi-2901a51/