Dehusking refers to the process of removing the outer fleshy husk from the macadamia nut. This is done as soon as possible after harvesting. If nut in husk is left too long, the husks begin decomposing, which can generate a lot of heat and adversely effect kernel quality. To remove the husks, the nuts are fed through a dehusking machine, which essentially squeezes the husks off, but leaves the hard shell undamaged.

After dehusking the nuts pass through a trommel where small nuts drop out, an air sorter where light nuts (e.g. immature or pest damaged) are blown off and across a sorting table where bad nuts can be manually identified and removed. Manual sorting is not fool-proof though as often the shell can look perfectly fine, but the kernel inside is poor. Conversely, the nut shell may exhibit signs of damage from sucking insects but the kernel inside can be perfectly fine.

The in-shell sorting does not achieve perfection but it does remove the majority of obviously bad nut and all of the husk. The nut in shell is then placed in ventilated storage to slowly dry the kernel, prior to final processing.