Macadamia Orchards’
By Russ Lynch
earnings jump 42%
Star-Bulletin
An earlier-than-usual nut harvest pumped up earnings at ML Macadamia Orchards LP by 42 percent for the third quarter, compared with the year-ago period.
The partnership today reported a profit of $467,000 for the three months through Sept. 30, equal to 6 cents a share, compared with a net of $329,000, or 4 cents a share in the 1998 third quarter.
Macadamia nut sales of $4.3 million in the latest quarter were up 22.9 percent from sales of $3.5 million in the 1998 period.
The harvest of 8 million pounds in the 1999 quarter was 40 percent higher than the 5.7 million pounds in the year-earlier quarter. The partnership said harvesting began in July in all of its growing areas this year. Last year, harvesting started in August. But prices were lower this year. Honolulu-based ML Macadamia Orchards said it received 58 cents a pound for the nuts sold so far this year, a drop of 9 percent from 64 cents a pound last year.
The business, which grows macadamia nuts on more than 4,000 acres of Big Island land, said the ongoing drought in Kau will hurt production through the 1999-2000 crop year but the orchards at Keaau and Mauna Kea are producing more than expected.
