Nut grower’s net
Star-Bulletin staff
slips 19.1%
Big Island macadamia nut grower ML Macadamia Partners LP had a 19.1 percent slip in first-quarter earnings.
The company reported a profit of $541,000, or 7 cents a share, for the three months through March 31, vs a profit of $669,000, or 9 cents a share, a year earlier.
Quarterly nut sales of $3.45 million were down slightly from $3.46 million a year ago.
Nut production in the latest quarter was 5.4 million pounds, down 3.6 percent from 5.6 million pounds in the 1998 quarter.
However, 1998 production had set a first-quarter record, the partnership said.ML Macadamia Orchards received 63.8 cents a pound in the 1999 quarter, up 4.2 percent from 61.2 cents in the first quarter of 1998.
The partnership, whose shares technically are Class A partnership units, farms more than 4,000 acres of macadamia orchards on the Big Island.
