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Isle nut firm
earnings fall with
‘normal’ harvest

Star-Bulletin staff

First-quarter profit at ML Macadamia Orchards LP fell to $65,000, or 1 cent a share, less than one-eighth the profit of $541,000, or 7 cents a share, it had in the first quarter of 1999.

The 1999 period had produced a much bigger-than-normal harvest, the company said yesterday.

Macadamia nut sales revenue fell 56 percent to $1.5 million in the latest quarter from $3.4 million in the 1999 period. First-quarter nut production fell to 2.6 million pounds, just under half the 5.4 million pounds produced in the 1999 quarter.

ML Macadamia, a publicly traded partnership, said this year's period was a "more normal" quarter than the unusually heavy harvest in the 1999 period.

The partnership also received lower prices for its nuts, averaging 58 cents a pound in the latest quarter, down 9.4 percent from 64 cents in the year-earlier quarter.

M.L. Macadamia said yesterday that it concluded its acquisition of $9 million purchase of the macadamia farming business of Kau Agribusiness Co., a subsidiary of C. Brewer & Co.

The deal includes 142 acres of macadamia orchards on the Big Island, farming contracts for lands owned by others, as well as vehicles, equipment and buildings.

ML Macadamia said it retained all 370 Kau Agribusiness macadamia workers.

ML Macadamia now farms 3,000 acres owned by other growers as well as its own 4,169 acres.

The company's shares closed unchanged at $5.06 today on the New York Stock Exchange. Its stock is up 35 percent so far this year.