On most macadamia farms, the farmer’s job ends after dehusking and sorting. Nuts are then delivered to a large processor. Ecodamia is a bit different however, in that we have our own (small) processing facility on-farm. This guarantees that the nuts we supply, come from our orchard and are produced regeneratively without spraying.

The first step in processing is cracking, whereby the nuts are fed through a cracking machine. The cracker produces a mix of kernel and shell (about one third kernel and two thirds shell), which has to be separated. A colour sorting machine uses cameras to identify shell and bad kernel and jets of air to separate it from the good kernel. Some manual sorting of kernel is still required for quality assurance purposes.

Once separated the kernel can be coated with flavourings and dried in a dehydrator. Chocolate coatings are applied to dried unflavoured kernel. Finally, the nuts are packaged up ready for sale.