Nut rage: Macadamia sales soar after Korean Air Lines executive incident

Chairman's daughter exploded with fury after she was served nuts in a bag

Cho Hyun-ah apologised after ordereding a crew member off a flight for serving bagged nuts in the first class cabin (YONHAP/AP)

The daughter of Korean Air Lines chairman made headlines earlier this month after she threw a monumental tantrum over a bag of macadamia nuts that led to a delay and saw the cabin crew chief being kicked off the plane.

While her fate was entirely predictable - she ended up resigning in an embarrassing episode for the company- her angry bust-up has had some unexpected consquences: sales of macadamia nuts are soaring in South Korea.

According to the country's largest online shopping retailer, Ebay-owned Gmarket, sales of macadamia have surged 20 percent in just six days after the incident was first reported by local media last Monday.

Auction, South Korea's second largest e-commerce site also owned by Ebay, said sales rocketed 12 fold in five days without any promotions. According to the company, macadamia now accounts for almost fifty per cent of its nuts sales from just 5 per cent before the "nut rage" episode.

Heather Cho, the eldest daughter of Korean Air Lines chairman Cho Yang-ho, exploded with fury on a flight to Seoul from New York City after she was served nuts in a bag, not on a plate. The row forced the flight to be delayed and saw the head of the cabin crew being kicked off the place.

Park Chang-jin, the stewart in question, said Cho shouted while pointing at him and made him kneel as he apologised. Cho has been stripped of her executive roles at the airline and faces an investigation by transport authorities to determine whether her behaviour violated aviation laws.

Additional reporting PA