In 1983, a handful of macadamia growers in the Alstonville area, near Lismore, decided to form a small processing company so they could have a hand in the production and marketing of their own produce and be the masters of their investments. Until then, the macadamia industry has been dominated by a single processing facility owned by CSR. This one company decided whether they would purchase the nuts and what price they would pay the growers. To some of the newer growers, this was unacceptable and presented an uncertain future.The decision of these few pioneers led to the formation of the Macadamia Processing Co. Limited The concept was co-operative in nature. Each grower shareholder made a commitment to supply all their in shell nuts to the new factory, which in turn gave a commitment to process and market the kernel result. Over the last 20 years the shareholder numbers have grown to over 200 and the company handles 30% of the entire Australian crop. The Macadamia Processing Co. Limited is now the world leader in macadamia processing and marketing and the corporate structure remains basically the same as in xxxxx winning formula.