Increasing earthworm microbial activity in the soil has the potential to position South Africa’s macadamia farmers as consistent producers of premium outsized nuts able to reach top prices on world markets.
Justice Malanot, who heads up the Bigger Nut Consortium, believes the future sustainability of the country’s macadamia sector rests in reliably supplying the market with outsized and better quality nuts.
“The idea is to be able to say we can supply outsized nuts consistently at appropriate pricing rather than saying we are the world’s largest producer of consistently smaller macadamia nuts,” Malanot says.
And the secret to producing high quality larger sized nuts, he adds, is perfecting the science of cross-pollination and increasing earthworm microbial populations and activity in orchard soils for enhanced nutrient uptake.
The largest macadamia nuts on record (full genetic potential) are 45mm in size. Presently the South African crop averages between 18mm-25mm.
In 2023 the premium domestic price for 20mm-22mm macs was set at R36.50kg and for 22mm-30mm, R54.60kg, a 50% increase. Nuts sized between 30mm-45mm bagged R211kg or a 478% increase. “The profitability increases significantly with increased nut size,” Malanot says.
He breaks down the market value by size as follows:
- Nuts that are 25mm-30mm and above are often considered premium quality. They can command prices 50% higher than smaller nuts (e.g., those below 22mm).
- Nuts that are 30mm outsize and above are typically seen as the highest quality. These can sell for prices that are 480% higher than smaller sizes, depending on market demand and quality. Current outsize supply is extremely limited. The World Macadamia Organisation classifies nuts between 10mm and 20mm, and for 50 years South Africa did well to produce nuts up to 25mm. With the entrance of China as a producer we now need to dominate the 30mm-45mm outsize segment by increasing soil fertility and nutrient uptake 500%, to raise outsize prices 500%.
“The increase in value for macadamia nuts when they are sized over 30mm can be anything between 50% and 500% in market value. Of course, specific prices do vary based on market conditions and demand,” says Malanot.
The Bigger Nut Consortium is a group of varied nut farmers, including five macadamia farmers, actively working to outsize their crops to secure a premium outsize price in the markets. Malanot describes it as an earthworm and cross-pollination mentorship programme aimed at arming farmers with the technology – and trade secrets – to produce outsize nuts in the 25mm to 45mm size range in at least
20%-40% of their crop.
“You need to have cross-pollination add 40% in size via a faster metabolic rate, and earthworm nutrition add another 40% in additional size because of better nutrient uptake. Doubling from 20mm to 40mm increases price by 500%.”
The consortium aims to compete on outsizes and quality instead of just volume.
“The increased value of outsize nuts above 30mm can be substantial, and result in an increase of 500% in market value, significantly affecting overall profitability for growers and producers,” he points out.
The group pools its top 40% sized nuts to attain critical mass and consistency of quality, the crop then being loaded into a container and shipped to markets looking for premium outsized macadamia nuts, especially in the confectionary trade.
“A 15ha macadamia orchard may produce only a few tons of bigger nuts and only a few hundred kilograms of any specific outsized nuts. The Bigger Nut Consortium allows for critical mass and consistent supply, increasing the potential to break into top tier price brackets,” he adds.
“There is a shift from delivering small nuts, with a few big ones, to delivering 40% of the larger outsize nuts for 50%-500% more value. That also means the balance of power shifts from marketers to processors and producers who are consistently able to deliver the larger nuts vis-à-vis Chinese average production sizes.”
The consortium “rents” its trade secret expertise, mentorship, earthworms and ecotechnology for a 10% royalty on the bigger nut returns. “This only kicks in when the outsize nut size bracket is reached,” he says.
“Improving the nut size from 20mm to 22mm in the domestic market triggers a price increase from R30 per kilogram to R60 a kg. The added income is typically reinvested in achieving 25mm to 30mm+ nut outsizes. The investment usually goes to cover crops, irrigation, inoculated earthworms, microbes and cross-pollination, as our quality mentorship provides access to critical genetics, microbes and skills that result in an outsize nut crop.”
Some of the main drivers behind outsize nuts:
- Improved cross-pollination results in a signal from the tree to the roots that a cross-pollinated nut is a priority nut and should be allocated priority maximalist root reserve resources. The goal of the Bigger Nut Consortium is to grow root reserves by increasing soil fertility by at least 500% to allow these cross-pollinated nuts to grow to full genetic potential.
- The subsoil microbial biomass in an orchard can range from two tons to 60 tons of living microbes. Earthworms convert 20%-40% into liquid fertiliser. Once dead, these microbe bodies typically consist of at least 17% nitrogen. Living microbes are not available to the plant and have little or no nutritional value, however, once killed and excreted by earthworms the living biomass is converted to plant-available nutrients as a liquid bio-fertiliser. The trees produce bigger nuts because they can suddenly take up the renewable living biomass resource fertiliser. There is up to a 1000% increase in beneficial microbes from a single gut passage, even after 40% is turned into liquid plant-available fertiliser, humus and castings. For example: 10 tons of living soil microbes produced in one hectare each year are consumed by earthworms.
At least four tons are turned into plant-available liquid fertiliser. Of the four tons of liquefied microbes,
616 kg of biological nitrogen becomes available to the plant. When one hectare of mac trees is fed 616 kg of biological nitrogen, there is a yield bump resulting in at least 40% of the cross-pollinated nuts becoming outsize. In a similar vein, the pro rata sizes of cross-pollinated nuts will rise as the soil microbial biomass are increased from
10 to 20 to 30 to 40 to 50 to 60 tons per ha per year, using cover crops, full root zone earthworm action, full irrigation and full use of the interrow. - Earthworms have a 20% to 50% improvement on plant production, particularly with six tons plus of crop residue as per the meta-analysis https://www.nature.com/articles/srep06365
Top priorities for outsize nut production:
- Full root zone irrigation for optimised root zone earthworm action, with a shift towards recycling manure.
- Application of six to 10 tons+ high-quality manure per hectare per year. Sheep manure mixed with compost is better than cattle manure. The value of one sheep’s manure in a macadamia orchard is R10000 plus per year, much more than the meat carcass value of R2 500. The ecological service has outsize value. Earthworms act as bioreactors with vertical mulching/inoculation, and as food particles pass through the earthworm gut it is inoculated with more than 474 billion soil benevolent microbes, which are then deposited in the tree feeder root layer by the earthworms. At the same time the worms are increasing beneficial microbes up to 1000% per gut passage.
- Custom Bioprime microbiome inoculation into the soil as well as a foliar application.
- The full soil profile/full rootzone, full leaf zone to the very top of the tree are farmed.
- Full cover crops are grown between the trees and in inter-rows, with maximum utilisation of the available solar energy.
- Maximise the below-ground biomass, liquefy the microbes and make them available to the tree metabolic budget.
- Concentrate resources in the feeder root layer of the trees through earthworm action.
- Secure next year’s harvest in the tree’s root reserves this year
Table 1 shows the characteristics of treated soil after it has passed through an earthworm’s digestive system – in other words, the more soil that passes through the earthworm’s gut, the higher the nut yield and more outsized the nuts become.
| Characteristics | |||
| Soil-benevolent bacteria in ONE worm | Fore-gut | Mid-gut | Hind-gut |
| 475 million | 32 900 million | 474 Billion | |
| Available minerals in the soil after earthworm activity: | |||
| Phosphorous | 7 times more | ||
| Nitrogen | 6 times more | ||
| Magnesium | 3 times more | ||
| Carbon | 2 times more | ||
| Calcium | 1.5 times more |
Typical cost analysis of the underlying technology required for bigger mac nut production:
- R2 500 for 2 500 inoculated earthworms and
75kg of inoculation medium/ha. - R1 000 for 5 litres of Bioprime Earthworm Microbial Inoculant for local manure/compost.
- Time delay for 2 500 earthworms to become
1 million worms: 18 months. - Time reduction to first commercial harvest with new trees: one to two years.
- If a 10% royalty on a 50%-500% rise in value is acceptable, you are invited to make contact with the Bigger Nut Consortium and take a look at http://biggernutconsortium.com
Table 2:
Table 3:
Table 4:
Table 5:
The above graph shows how macadamia nut sizes respond to different earthworm populations and additional soil improvements. The blue line represents a moderate increase in nut size with increasing earthworm populations. The green line indicates a higher increase, due to a greater earthworm impact alone. The red line shows the added benefit of using cover crops, legumes, and high-protein manure, leading to the largest nut sizes, potentially reaching up to 45mm. This highlights the synergistic effect of soil amendments and beneficial earthworm populations on macadamia nutrient uptake
to full genetic potential.
Contact: Justice CJ Malanot (Cellphone): 072 253 4773 http://biggernutconsortium.com
