Macadamia nuts become profitable in Lincang

Just after the Spring Festival, the macadamia nut trees have entered the flowering period, and Li Tianhong, the planter, is busy with weeding, fertilizing, pest controling, and other tasks.

"Last year, we harvested 30 tons of fresh macadamia nuts, with sales revenue exceeding 900,000 yuan." With several consecutive years of bumper harvests, Li Tianhong keeps working hard.

43 year-old Li brought several nut trees from nearby counties years ago. After 11 years of cultivation, the planting scale has now reached nearly 60 mu (about 40,000 m2). The hills in front and behind his house are densely planted with macadamia nut trees, which not only conserve soil and water, beautify the environment but also create economic value.

Over the years, the nuts he grows earn him houses and cars. So, he decided to focus on planting without doing other jobs.

Li is one of the successful growers in Lincang city of southwest Yunnan province. When Lincang listed macadamia nuts as a key afforestation tree species and began large-scale planting since 2002, the development of the industry reached its peak.

By the end of 2023, the planting area of macadamia nuts in Lincang reached 2.6277 million mu (about 1751.8km2), ranking first in the country in terms of planting area, output, and output value.

The macadamia nut industry has also become an important part of Yunnan's plateau agriculture, boosting farmers' income and prosperity. Statistic shows that macadamia is planted in 739 administrative villages (communities) in Lincang, involving 216,400 households and 744,500 people.

In 2023, Lincang's production of shelled macadamia nuts reached 96,500 tons, with a comprehensive output value of 5.939 billion yuan, and an average income of 3,346 yuan per planting household.

Source: People's Daily; trans-editing by Wang Yunya