Leading Vietnamese commercial bank LienVietPost is looking to invest in the country’s macadamia sector, following a recent research tour.
Representatives from the bank formed the bulk of a 15 member Vietnamese delegation that travelled to Australia to learn more about production and processing of the tree nut. Representatives from the Vietnamese government, media outlets, and research agencies also joined the two-week delegation, which visited key processing companies, research facilities and orchards in New South Wales and Queensland.
Whilst in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, the delegation met with Jolyon Burnett, chief executive of the Australian Macadamia Society (AMS). Burnett said the Vietnamese macadamia industry was still in its infancy, having only been established in the last decade, however, it had strong support and financial backing from the government support.
Burnett travelled to Vietnam earlier this year to present at a joint Australian-Vietnamese government workshop on the potential of macadamias in the South East Asian nation. “The Vietnamese Government has identified macadamias as a potentially profitable new agricultural crop and there are plans for massive expansion in the coming years,” Burnett explained.
Meanwhile, AMS has announced the 2015 Australian crop is on track to hit 47,000 tonnes in-shell. “We’ve had relatively favourable weather conditions throughout the early part of the season across all growing regions, and early harvest conditions have been good,” Burnett said following the release of the June forecast update.
This crop estimate update is based on the actual volume received, until end of May, by participating Australian handlers. Approximately 50 per cent of the crop is still to be delivered.
