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Our Macadamia Nut Orchards
A fully integrated orchard and processing facility on the majestic mountain slopes of The Big Island of Hawaii is one of Island Princess' greatest competitive strengths. Our orchard is planted with 110,000 trees on an expansive 1,100 acres of choice agricultural land. In this region famed for tropical sunshine, sweet island tradewinds, reliable rainfall and the quality of its volcanic soils, these elements combine to yield the world’s richest, most flavorful macadamia nuts.The Island Princess orchard is one of the largest and best tended in the state. Dedicated workers use cutting-edge, sustainable soil management and pruning techniques to ensure optimum fertility and nutrient balance. Organic byproducts from our orchard operations are recycled as potting material for our nursery. The nutshells are used as road base throughout the property. For these and other efforts, Island Princess was named "Outstanding Farm of the Year" by the Puna Soil and Water Conservation District in 2004.Our orchard nursery produces more than 30,000 grafted trees each year. Some of these are sold to other Big Island growers, many of whom in return, sell their harvested nuts back to Island Princess. In this way, we are able to encourage the success of the entire macadamia nut industry in Hawaii. August through March is the height of harvesting season. Because macadamia nuts are fully ripe when they drop to the ground, they are not picked from the trees themselves. Once harvested from the ground beneath each tree, a thick outer husk must be removed from the nuts within 24 hours. In their shells, the nuts are then transported to the Island Princess processing facility a short distance away.
Before being cracked, the macadamia nuts are slow-dried for seven days in special drying silos. Cracking a macadamia nut -- which has the hardest shell of any nut in the world -- requires a special machine that delivers 300 pounds of pressure per square inch. The shelled nuts are sorted using an innovative saline floatation process, ensuring only dense nuts with the richest flavor, go on to become gourmet confections. Finally, the nuts are lightly roasted before being shipped to the Island Princess factory in Honolulu. Fully integrated harvesting and processing operations along with strict controls that are in place both in the fields and in the handling process, ensure our macadamia nuts are in prime condition when they ultimately reach the production factory in Honolulu.In an 8-hour workday, some 30,000 pounds of nuts are processed at our Big Island facility. This level of production will increase further in the coming years as we continue with our efforts to plant 45,000 new trees.
 In Honolulu, Island Princess operates a 30,000-square-foot factory that transforms macadamia nuts into gourmet confections. The process begins when nuts arrive fresh from our orchard on The Big Island and ends with a diverse selection of Hawaii's finest macadamia nuts, chocolates and confections.
Island Princess is a proud member of the Hawaii Macadamia Nut Association (HMNA) and the Hawaii Food Manufacturer's Association (HFMA).
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