When Del Monte Corp. announced in 1983 that it was cutting half of its Moloka'i pineapple acreage and shutting its cannery on O'ahu, it was just the latest in what had been a dramatic turn in the dominance of pineapple and sugar in Hawai'i.
The shift from agriculture to tourism as the major economic engine in Hawai'i had been slowly under way since statehood and the advent of affordable air travel. Also, the number of people working in pineapple and sugar had been decreasing since the widespread mechanization of the industry in the 1940s.
Several factors played a role in the decline: the expiration of the Sugar Act in 1974, competition from international growers, the development of artificial and corn-based sweeteners, and demand for land to accommodate the burgeoning population.
The crisis in agriculture was underscored in the 1970s with the closings of Castle & Cooke's Kohala plantation on the Big Island, C. Brewer & Co.'s Kilauea plantation on Kaua'i, and the Kahuku plantation on O'ahu. The wave of closures had an enormous impact on plantation towns, spurring deep social and economic changes.
By the 1980s, the number of ILWU sugar workers had decreased from an estimated 25,000 in 1945 to about 7,000; the number of pineapple workers dropped by half, from 7,200 to 3,600, during the same period. In 1982, Hawai'i sugar plantations lost nearly $90 million.
The plantation and facility closures hit terminal velocity in the 1990s: Dole shut down its Lana'i plantation and Iwilei Cannery in 1992; Hamakua Sugar Co. harvested its last crop in 1994; Hilo Sugar and Oahu Sugar closed in 1995; Ka'u Sugar and Waialua Sugar shut down in 1996; and Lahaina bore its final sugar crop in 1999.
The number of sugar plantations in Hawai'i has dwindled from 35 in 1945 to just two today; two pineapple operations remain, compared to eight in the 1940s, and Del Monte has announced plans to harvest its last crop in 2008.
With tourism as the unchallenged No. 1 industry, much of the estimated 150,000 acres of available plantation lands were acquired for the growing diversified agriculture market, which today produces everything from coffee to 'awa.
