Company pulled $712K in profits

Improved rainfall helped ML Macadamia Orchards LP, turn a profit last year.

The company reported Wednesday earning $712,000 last year, compared with a $1.5 million net loss the year before.

The profit was ML Macadamia’s biggest in five years. The company earned $800,000 in 2006.

Most of the company’s financial results were attributable to operations in the fourth quarter. ML Macadamia reported net income of $559,000 in the last three months of 2011, compared with a loss of $1 million in the same period a year earlier.

The company said partial recovery from a severe drought in Kau, one of its main growing areas on Hawaii island, resulted in a 51 percent increase in nut production to 6 million pounds last year.

Production in Kau represented more than a quarter of total company production, which rose to 21.8 million pounds last year from 17.1 million pounds the year before.

The average contract price for nuts rose to 73.5 cents per pound last year from 71.6 cents the year before. Total revenue was $18 million, up 18 percent from $15.3 million.