Bundaberg macadamia orchards tipped to sell for more than $70m
One of the country’s biggest and most productive macadamia orchards is expected to sell for more than $70 million, after being put up for sale by the Manera family
Macadamia Enterprises, which includes about 106,000 macadamia trees planted across 343.53 hectares at Calavos, just south of the Bundaberg CBD, is being offered for sale along with a state-of-the-art nut-sorting facility and more than 1600 megalitres of water entitlements.
The orchards, which are expected to generate interest from large family enterprises and institutional investors including macadamia-focused ASX-listed Rural Funds Group, are being sold as the next generation of the Manera family forge a new path as property developers.
The family is building the $2 billion South Beach precinct in Bundaberg, which features 3200 housing lots, a shopping centre and schools.
Best known as the country’s sugarcane growing capital, Bundaberg is also Australia’s premier region for growing macadamias, a nut native to Queensland.
The versatile and healthy snack product’s value has soared over the past decade as global demand has increased. Australia is the world’s second largest grower of macadamia nuts behind South Africa.
Last year, the Manera’s Macadamia Enterprises produced 1478 tonnes of macadamia nuts (in shell), a figure that will increase in the coming years as about 7000 young trees on the property reach maturity.
The nuts are sorted through a highly automated, nut-sorting plant on the property, which has the capacity to sort up to 4500 tonnes of harvested nuts each year.
The facility also processes third-party nuts for delivery to Brisbane-based Marquis Macadamias, the world’s largest macadamia grower, processor and marketer, in which the Manera family has a shareholding.
Last November, Rural Funds acquired shares in Marquis Macadamias as it swooped on 475ha of mature macadamia orchards on the Sunshine Coast and near Fraser Island acquired from family-owned Costi Farms.
Others investing in macadamia include Belgian sugar producer Finasucre, which in late 2019 acquired the 1018-hectare Winfield Road aggregation, about 57 kilometres north of Bundaberg, for about $60 million.
Based on the age, yield, quality and profitability of Macadamia Enterprises, it is understood the orchards alone could be worth about $70 million. This excludes the value attached to the water entitlements and nut-sorting facilities, which are included in the “walk in, walk out” style offering,
“These orchards have set a new standard in the district for yield and nut quality,” said Baden Lowrie of Elders Bundaberg, who is marketing Macadamia Enterprises.
“They enjoy an excellent age profile, with substantial increases in production expected in the near term as the orchard continues to mature.”
He added: “There are very few opportunities to acquire an orchard of this scale in Australia. We expect very strong interest from large family and institutional investors. It’s also likely to attract a lot of international interest.”
An added attraction for any incoming buyer would be the ability to generate additional revenue from carbon credit offsets.
Measurements undertaken in 2020 by the Manera family after it invested in improving the soil quality found their orchards and operations had gone from being a net emitter of carbon to sequestering more carbon emissions than they produce.
