Macadamia nut oil can be found as a single-ingredient product for cooking. It’s widely used in skincare products like moisturisers, serums and soaps. It’s also present of course in macadamia nut butters (yum)! Macadamia nuts can be found as part of premium tree nut mixes, in muesli and other delicious health foods.

First, the macadamia nut husks are removed. Once the husk is removed, the nuts are fried to crack the shells and the kernels (the edible section) are collected. The nuts can then be sold raw, air dried, roasted or pressed into oil.

Macadamia integrifolia yields delicious, sweet nuts that are most commonly used as a food. Macadamia ternifolia’s nuts are a lot more bitter and are best suited for cosmetic purposes.

South Africa is the world’s leading producer of macadamia nuts. In 2018 it was reported that South Africa produced 54 000 tonnes of macadamia nuts, while the total global production was estimated at 500 000 tonnes.

The most commonly cultivated types of macadamia in South Africa have a very high fat (73%) and very low sugar content. This means that even after roasting, the oil pressed from the nuts is a very light colour.