LOCAL GROWERS: Torere Macadamias’ Vanessa Hayes visits the Bushes’ macadamia orchard at Makaraka to check on their progress. She is pictured here with Gwen and Duncan Bush. Picture by Liam Clayton
The people behind Torere Macadamias are so passionate about macadamias they have developed a 10-year NZ Macadamia Industry Growth Strategy (2018-2029) to increase organic growing of macadamias from 10ha in 2018 to 1000ha in 2029.
The company is based in two locations with an orchard and nursery in Torere in the Eastern Bay of Plenty and head office and processing operation in Gisborne city.
Torere Macadamias Limited (TML) general manager Vanessa Hayes, partner Rod Husband and her whānau have created a fully integrated macadamia business from 35 years of research of variety trials at Torere.
The aim is to create a viable organic macadamia nut industry in New Zealand.
On a recent field day Vanessa hosted a group of new growers showing them around the Torere nursery and macadamia orchard. She and Rod talked about the trials and learnings they have made over more than 35 years of growing macadamias.
In 2017 New Zealand Plant & Food Research (PFR) made a commitment to work with Vanessa and Torere Macadamias to take the existing research and expand on it to grow the macadamia industry in New Zealand.
New research funded by High-Value Nutrition Science Challenge in 2022, shows TML’s top six varieties grown in the Eastern Bay of Plenty hold their own internationally.
The kernels are significantly higher in vitamin B6, vitamin C, selenium, manganese and magnesium than imported macadamias.
This is great news for Vanessa and the team who have already had their macadamias declared the “biggest and best tasting” at the Hawaii International Symposium in 2017 where they were compared to macadamias from around the world.
The Riddett Institute of Science were so impressed with the kernel nutrition results, they sponsored a PhD student to work with Torere Macadamias for two years from March 2023. The student will research the nutritional composition and bioactives in macadamia husks, shells and leaves to develop new unique products.
It is Vanessa’s mission to promote and market the health benefits of macadamias and expand the number of growers throughout New Zealand.
“It is great to have the backing of PFR who will gather independent science-backed data to support growers, and now the Riddett Institute is working with us to develop new high value products,” she says.
In April PFR will bring a number of its scientists to Torere to review progress of the 2018 10-year growth strategy. Invitations are being extended to Government agencies and EIT who are currently working with Torere Macadamias.
“It’s five years down the track now and we need to look at what we need to do for the next five years to make sure we are on target and what we are going to do for the next 10-15 years to get the industry to where it should be,” Vanessa says.
One of the goals for TML is to focus on developing Maori whenua to support and improve whānau wellness, training and education and economic growth in the regions. Nuhiti Q was the first Maori whenua planting outside of Torere and since then, TML has created a Maori macadamia collective which supports growers through training and development in three regions — Raukokore/Waihau Bay (East Coast) 20ha, Mataatua (Eastern BOP) 75ha and Ruatorea 40ha.
“Feasibility studies on blocks at Whakaki have been completed and feasibility studies on the blocks in Ruatorea are looking very promising,” says Vanessa.
Macadamia trees originate from rain forest, can cope with heavy rain and are very resilient.
Torere has many other growers throughout New Zealand, with large plantings in Makaraka (Tairāwhiti), Whakatane/Matata, Papakura, Thames and in colder regions like Karapiro and Feilding.
“When the growers came to me from Karapiro I turned them away as I thought it would be too risky to grow the trees there.
“But they designed their own frost protection and I was blown away. It’s a little mesh house that goes around the trees with a hat on top which can be pulled up at night. We now market it to other growers.”
The challenge for Vanessa and PFR is to figure out how to grow the industry and get the data out and for the nuts to be accepted as a sustainable, viable crop.
“We want to create grower manuals with all of the instructions just like they have done in the kiwifruit and apple industries,” says Vanessa.
She is working closely with scientist Dr Grant Thorp and his team of researchers who are documenting everything about the Torere macadamias so they can create the next 10-year growth strategy.
In 2017 Country Calendar raised the profile of Torere when they featured on the programme, and they are about to feature on TV1’s Rural Delivery programme.
Maori TV is also featuring the business in the “Home, Land and Sea” series and was filming at the field day in late February. The crew also filmed the Mataatua collective students planting at Ruatoki and recorded the action at the Gisborne Farmers’ Market on March 18.
You will still find Vanessa at the Gisborne Farmers’ Market every Saturday where she loves getting feedback from the public and trying out new recipes. As well as the nuts, Torere has a range of muesli bars, nut butters, pesto and chocolate macadamias.
Vanessa is working with New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to raise capital to build a factory in the Eastern Bay of Plenty in 2023 to process the nuts. It will also have a tourist café, laboratory and biomass co-generator.
“I am really looking forward to this next stage — of working with growers to help them grow the best nuts and get the best returns. That’s where I get my fun and reward.”