Mauna Loa posts gain
in first quarter

The company made a $226,000 profit
due to higher prices and production

Star-Bulletin staff

Increased production and higher prices boosted income at Mauna Loa Macadamia Partners, L.P. in the first quarter, producing a profit of $226,000, or 3 cents a share, for the quarter ending March 31.

In the year-earlier quarter, the Big Island producer and processor of macadamia nuts had a loss of $118,000. Sales were $1.8 million in the latest quarter, up 20 percent from $1.5 million in the 1996 quarter.

The Honolulu-based company said it produced 2.9 million pounds of nuts in the latest quarter, 4 percent more than the production of the 1996 first quarter, and received 61 cents a pound for this year's production, 2 percent higher than in the 1996 quarter.

The company said the first quarter usually represents 15 percent of its annual output and that production in the second quarter is expected to be modest.

Mauna Loa is the world's largest grower of macadamia nuts, with 4,000 acres of orchards on the Big Island. Its shares, technically Class A partnership units, are traded on the New York Stock Exchange.