Koreans go nuts over macadamias

HONOLULU – Every cloud has a silver lining, so they say. And even bad news can be great publicity.

Hawai’i’s $38 million macadamia nut industry is seeing a huge boost in demand from South Korea after a controversy that saw Korean Air heiress Heather Cho delay a flight because she was unhappy about the way she was served her nuts.

Cho was accused of forcing the chief cabin crew member off a December 5 New York-Seoul flight and of compelling the taxiing plane to return to the gate, after she objected to being served macadamia nuts she had not asked for – and in a bag, not a bowl.

The nuts at the centre of the “nut rage” storm were Hawaiian macadamias, and now, according to John Cross from the Hawai’i Macadamia Nut Association, it seems everybody in Korea wants some.

“From what we’re hearing, the Korean stores, the stores that stock the nuts, it’s flying off the shelves and so there’s a huge demand for the product coming out of Korea,” he told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat.

“One of our processors, the second largest processor on the island, in a matter of days of this incident received three phone calls from Korean brokers wanting to order product, when previously in the months before, none.

There’s been a 300 per cent increase in inquiries out of Korea from one of our processors.”

South Korea’s largest online shopping retailer, the e-Bay owned Gmarket, said macadamia nut sales had increased 20 times from one week to the next earlier this month, according to Associated Press reports.

Until now, macadamias have been relatively unknown in Korea.

“Beyond Japan, Macadamia nuts have not really exploded or moved far into Korea or China. Certainly if it would go into those markets we could see possibly unlimited demand and a shorter supply,” Cross said.

Mainly grown in warm regions like Hawai’i, Australia, South Africa and Central America, Cross said the Korea Air incident will have long term benefits for the industry.

“This is going to be good for all of us to have the exposure and get more macadamia nuts to the world – because it is one of the healthiest tree nuts in the world,” he said.

“Any publicity regarding the macadamia nuts and its health and benefits to humans and society as a whole, we would love to have it because people need to learn about this tastiest of nuts.

“It is almost addictive once you start eating macadamia nuts.”