One thing I learned in Hawaii was that the cost of labor has killed the sugar industry: “End of an era: Hawaii’s last sugar mill wraps up final harvest” (December 12, 2016 AP). This despite about $2 billion per year in subsidies (from a “temporary” program created in 1934).
What about Macadamia nuts? Can they be harvested by machine? The locals said “no” but that “Puerto Ricans” pick them by hand at a reasonable cost. I’m not sure if the Puerto Ricans come temporarily for a harvest season or live in Hawaii year-round.
“End of an era: Maui Land & Pineapple closing its pineapple operations” (November 4, 2009) says “The end of pineapple production on Maui will leave Oahu as the sole Hawaiian Island with any significant acreage of the fruit. … Hawaii pineapple production declined in the 1980s as Dole and Del Monte relocated much of their acreage elsewhere in the world, primarily due to high U.S. labor and land costs. Dole closed down the entirety of its Lanai pineapple operations in 1992, while Del Monte harvested its final Hawaii crop in 2008.”
I’m wondering if coffee will become the main crop. Retailing at roughly $40 per lb., even in Hawaii, Hawaiian coffee isn’t a bargain, but coffee-drinking is a religious activity for an increasing number of Americans. One part-time resident said that Kona coffee was unusual because a layer of moisture blowing up from the sea protects it from the sun. Couldn’t coffee grown under the shade of a tree be just as good? The answer was “no.”
Readers: What do you think? Is Hawaiian coffee uniquely great? Will it be the last crop standing, so to speak?
On the 110 point coffee scale the best Hawaiian coffee sometimes scores in the mid 80’s. It is often downgraded lower because of damage from insects that invaded the islands. Personally I won’t miss very expensive Kona beans if they disappear. There are so many other (better) choices
The secret is that Kona coffee is not really that good. The best coffee is grown at high altitude above 4,000 ft. where the harsher growing condition lead to desirable “hard” beans. (Coffee can only grow in the tropics though – any frost would kill the trees) Kona grows at below 2,000 ft.
A few years ago, a coffee wholesaler was caught substituting Panama coffee (a similar tasting coffee that is much much cheaper) for Kona. I believe he was caught because an employee ratted him out and not because anyone noticed the difference in taste.
http://www.coffeetimes.com/jailtime.html
Kona is one of those things like Rolex watches where you are buying the brand name more than you are buying the actual product, which is OK but not at all in keeping with the price.
Also I believe the zone suitable for growing coffee on Kona is already mostly covered in coffee so there is no real room for expansion. They have tried growing coffee on the other islands and the results have not been that successful commercially – the product itself is not that good and even with automated picking is not competitive with other origins with cheaper labor and the other islands lack the reputation that Kona has in the market.
Kona is just a blip on the world market. Total Kona production is around two million pounds. Vietnam exports 1 million TONS.
I don’t think any kind of agriculture stands a chance when compared with a) Tourism b) Estates for the super-rich (Oprah, Zuckerberg). It’s like asking “which crop will succeed in Manhattan?”
You can buy Kona coffee at Whole Foods. source. Too common. If I get ex-poachers to feed Tanzanian coffee to African Elephants, and pay them for the dung, harvest the beans and sell it as an alternative to Black Ivory Coffee link would I have done a good deed by giving them an incentive to not kill Elephants?
At home, I drink brand name coffee purchased off the shelf at the supermarket, and I like it Wellenough. But I remember that once, many years ago, my family and I had breakfast on the terrace of a hotel on the Big Island of Hawaii, overlooking the beach. I was drinking Kona coffee, and I remember thinking “Wow. I’ve discovered the location of Heaven, and it’s right here on Earth.” Was it the coffee, or the view, or the combination? I don’t know for sure. But I sure did love that coffee, a lot.
Kona coffee has a 200 years history and a worldwide market awareness as a quality ag crop. That is hard to beat and is therefore used as a barometer for the good, bad, and ugly.
Yes, the climatic conditions for this small region are unique, but this grows a balanced (!) aroma profile. Not specific aroma highlights like other regions do, i.e. citrus, earthy. Ratings are subjective and people buy wine and food products primarily for their image as long as they are of decent quality.
There’s also a continuous large captive audience in the safe-traveling, English-speaking, US based tourism to be found. Here is a great opportunity for ag-tourism being utilized which spills over into a thriving ag-real estate market. A patch work of affordable to luxurious coffee farms are available.
The image of a dreamy Hawaii on top of it drives pretty much any Hawaiian ag products’ sale. Case in point: There’s much, much more Kona coffee being sold than could have ever been grown here. Little to none enforcement on state or federal level is happening so fraud is rampant. Which one can say proofs that this is an enviable position Kona coffee growers find themselves in.
Apparently, agriculture is not viable in the U.S. anywhere where it’s not possible to ship in immigrant labor.
Robots should be picking crops, not humans.
Coffee planted in the right configuration (on flat fields and kept in trimmed hedges) can be harvested mechanically. These are not “robots” but relatively crude machines that just shake the bushes and catch what falls down. Kona is not suitable for machine harvesting but I suppose someday some kind of computer vision thing could pick the beans one by one.
There are many labor intensive processing steps in coffee beyond just harvesting the beans. The beans are picked surrounded by a pulpy fruit like a cherry and then a membrane than covers the seeds and these must be removed and the coffee dried to the correct moisture level. Traditionally after the green coffee beans were ready to be bagged (this is maybe the 6th step), women would sort thru the beans one by one and weed out all the rejects. Nowadays they have optical scanners that also sort the beans individually but at a crazy rate of speed. If the software senses a bad bean a jet of air blows it into a reject bin.
https://www.buhlergroup.com/global/en/downloads/SR_Coffee_Brochure_2014_EN.pdf
Lon, you are a very typical Kona consumer. People associate a product with a pleasant vacation memory – you’re relaxed and your mind is off of work, the weather and scenery are beautiful, etc. Then you get home and you try the same product and it doesn’t taste the same. “Must be the water”.
Aside from the outright fraud, there are no legal restrictions (outside the state of Hawaii) on what is a “Kona blend ” coffee, which might contain one Kona bean in each package, or an a “Kona style” coffee, which doesn’t have any. European law is very protective of denomination of origen but the US has been traditionally very relaxed about this and we have “champagne” that is not from Champagne, parmesan that is not from Parma, Swiss cheese that is not from Switzerland, etc.