Looking to agricultural base
By B.J. Reyes
Associated Press
The downturn in the Islands' economy since Sept. 11 has stirred discussion once again about moving Hawai'i's financial base away from tourism, and farm advocates say helping the agriculture industry must be part of the equation.
Maui News photo
Before the first tourist ever set foot in Hawai'i, it was pineapple, sugar and other agricultural products that drove the local economy. And while farming isn't likely by itself to save Hawai'i, they say, it can help diversify an island economy now dominated by tourism.
Maui Pineapple Co. workers were harvesting a Maui field earlier this month. Hawai'i is being urged to look to agriculture to help diversify its tourism-dependent economy.
"I think since September 11th ... it took that kind of devastating event to really have everybody looking at different industries," said Alan Takemoto, a spokesman for the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation. "Agriculture has been the only industry that has shown growth through the past few years ever since the economy has been going down."
Whether it is produce such as pineapples, sugar, papayas, bananas, coffee and litchis or livestock such as cattle, chickens or goats, lawmakers also recognize the importance of agriculture to the state's future.
Both houses of the Legislature have approved bills aimed at protecting farmers and spurring growth in agriculture. The bills would pay for advanced agricultural research and development and establish a task force to look at ways to deter agricultural theft.
Industry officials, including Takemoto and Doug MacCluer of the Pineapple Growers Association of Hawaii, estimate farmers lose more than $1 million each year to thieves.
One Big Island orange grower estimated he has lost about $1.9 million over the past three years to thieves. Morton Bassan, whose Ka'u Gold Orange Co. has 18,000 trees on 150 acres, said that if the losses continue, he will be forced to go out of business.
"The margins are so thin in the ag industry that any theft severely hurts the farmers," said MacCluer, a farmer and vice president of Maui Pineapple Co.
But pineapple, like sugar, is no longer the bankable commodity it once was in Hawai'i.
The first full-fledged sugar plantation started in Hawai'i in 1835. Sugar and pineapple would dominate the economic, social and political landscapes of the Islands until 1959, when statehood and jet travel ushered in the era of tourism.
In the 1800s, missionary families and businessmen controlled the plantations.
A decline in whaling and sandalwood production increased the importance of agriculture, and by 1880, there were 63 plantations, all controlled by the so-called "Big Five" companies — Alexander & Baldwin Inc., Amfac Inc., C. Brewer & Co. Ltd., Castle & Cooke Inc. and Theo H. Davies & Co. Ltd.
As Hawai'i's economy has moved toward tourism, the Big Five have moved to liquidate holdings as the once-sprawling plantations give way to smaller farms with more diverse products. That diversity has not gone unnoticed at the Capitol. Measures are pending in both houses to establish a multiyear pilot program that would assist farmers in marketing.
"Oftentimes, the farmers don't really know how to market their products because they are on the farm working," said Sen. Jan Yagi Buen, chairwoman of the Senate Agricultural Committee. "This program will assist these farmers in doing that."
The House measure proposes a three-year pilot program, while the Senate bill would establish a five-year project.
The program would be overseen by the state Agribusiness Development Corp.
"Marketing is always key to agriculture," the farm bureau's Takemoto said. "This bill, it helps the smaller farmers get together and market their product cohesively.
"Mostly the vegetable crops would benefit," he added. "I think those are the ones that really need help in working together."
Measures such as these should help bring Hawai'i's agriculture sector back strong, and in turn spur economic growth, say lawmakers such as Buen.
"With the decline of sugar, (agriculture revenue) has come down from an $8 billion to $9 billion industry to, now today, nearly $3 billion," she said. "My goal is, with the bills that we have passed ... and with everybody working together, I think we can raise that to bring in a lot of revenues for the farmers, for the ranchers, for the cattlemen and for the state."
If nothing else, said MacCluer, more investment is needed in agriculture simply to keep Hawai'i competitive with the industry in developing countries.
"Labor costs are considerably higher (in Hawai'i)," he said. "We have to be on the cutting edge of marketing and our ag research so that we can compete."
