Macadamia grower Phil Zadro has properties in Bundaberg, Childers, Northern NSW, Mt Bauple, South Africa and, most recently, Emerald. He produces 7500 tonnes of macadamias annually with large areas of new plantings set to gradually begin producing too.

As the world’s largest macadamia grower, Mr Zadro has no plans to slow down and is constantly looking at new ways to improve his planting techniques and locations to expand.

Recently he bought a 4500 hectare cotton farm in Emerald and transformed it into his next ‘macadamia land’.

Work is currently under way, planting the first 600 hectares of trees on the property, and Mr Zadro said it would be two to three years before he would know if the area was suitable for macadamia production.

“We are 95 per cent certain that Emerald will be a good area to grow macadamias but we need to fine tune some of those challenges that we have in there - predominately environmental challenges,” he said.