Every macadamia we export starts on a family farm within driving distance of our factory. This is the story of those farms, the people who grow and process the crop, and the town it keeps working.
White River sits in the Lowveld of Mpumalanga, in the heart of the largest macadamia growing region in the world. Summers bring heavy rain, and the sun shines almost all year.
Those conditions are why the trees thrive here, and why our growers can farm with a light hand. The rain carries most of the load, so water and fertiliser are used sparingly and responsibly across the orchards that supply us.
Each spring the trees hang heavy with long racemes of blossom. By late summer those have become clusters of green husked nuts, ready to fall and be gathered.
Our growers rely on us to cure, crack, process and sell their nuts on international markets. We have worked with them for more than nine years, and we know every one of them personally. When a buyer asks where a carton came from, we can name the farm and the family.
A long relationship, built one harvest at a time.
Our growers can see exactly what happens to their crop. Through the Amber Macs online portal, each farmer logs in to view their deliveries, processing results and payment schedule.
We stay close outside the season too. We visit growers on their farms, bring the region together at our growers' expo, and gather around the fire at the factory.
52 hectares lost to fire. Replanted.
Doctor Maphaphane farms 177 hectares of macadamias in White River and has supplied Amber Macs for nine years. In 2024 a fire swept through the farm and destroyed 52 hectares of his orchards.
He has replanted almost all of it. The young trees behind him are the new orchard, with only 12 hectares left to go. New trees take years to bear, so replanting is a long-term commitment, and one he has made alongside us.
Each grower employs people from the surrounding area to tend, harvest and husk the crop.
We take in the crop, then cure, crack, sort, grade and pack it in White River, employing more than 100 people.
Wages from both stay in the district. When the farms do well, the factory does well, and so does the town.
Every delivery is recorded against the farm it came from, and stays traceable through each stage until it leaves our gates.
Mature nuts are gathered in the orchard. Growers de-husk them on the farm, leaving the hard brown shell that protects the kernel, and pre-dry them before they are delivered to us.
Growers truck their pre-dried nut-in-shell straight to our receiving bays in White River. Every load is recorded against the farm it came from, and that record follows it through the factory.
Barend, our receiving manager, and Hilde, our logistics manager, see every delivery in and every container out.
We cure the nut-in-shell slowly in our silos until the kernel reaches 1.5% moisture. At that level the kernel cracks out cleanly, keeps its flavour and stores well. Heat from our own macadamia shells helps drive the process.
Dried nuts are cracked mechanically, then the kernels pass along our sorting lines. Machines do the first separation. After that, trained hands and eyes check every kernel for colour and quality.
Kernels are graded by size and style to international standards and checked against the specification each buyer has ordered.
Graded kernels are packed, sealed and loaded into lined containers here at the factory. From White River they ship to buyers around the world, including major US retail.
The factory employs more than 100 people from White River and the surrounding communities. We think of ourselves as a family, and we try to run the place like one.
Training and uplift programmes that build skills and careers inside the factory.
A mobile medical facility visits the factory every week.
Educational sponsorship programmes for our staff.
Social events through the year that bring the whole team together.
We were the first macadamia processor in South Africa to develop our own technology for turning waste shells into pure carbon. The shell that once went to landfill now works for us in three ways.
Traceability only matters if the process behind it holds up. Our factory is independently certified and audited, and our product is trusted by major retail in the United States.
Whether you buy kernel or nut-in-shell, or you grow macadamias yourself, we would like to hear from you.