This increase has been in part fueled by lower harvests in Australia, a major macadamia nut exporter, which led to both more demand from Kenya and higher overall prices (pushing up value).
However, a major factor behind the spectacular increase has been a ban by the Government of Kenya on the export of raw, in-shell nuts. This has diverted exports from processing buyers, namely Hong Kong, China and India, to local processors.
Like textiles and apparel, though to a lesser extent, the success of the sector is based on policy-level and not firm-level advantages over competitors. Minus the government ban, local supply may dramatically revert to other countries for processing and re-export to the US and other countries.
