ML Macadamia Orchards LP has signed an agreement to buy the Big Island  macadamia farming operations of California-based IASCO for $12.5  million.

The purchase includes 4,843 acres of land in the Kau district, 1,100 acres of which is planted in macadamia trees, ML Macadamia said in documents filed today with the Securities and Exchange Commission. ML Macadamia bills itself as the world’s largest grower of macadamia nuts.

IASCO, a Redwood City, Calif.-based airline crew leasing and management company, had owned much of the macadamia orchard and surrounding land since buying it in phases from C. Brewer & Co. in the late 1970s to the mid1980s.