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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Monday, October 21, 2002

Agriculture leaders to hold summit this week

By Susan Hooper
Advertiser Staff Writer

As Hawai'i's diversified agriculture industry continues to grow — hitting record revenue last year — a growing effort is under way to expand markets and opportunities in the industry.

This week, one of the biggest conferences on the issues facing agriculture in the Islands will be held in Waikiki in the first joint effort of the Agricultural Leadership Foundation of Hawaii, the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation and the University of Hawai'i's College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

Agricultural Conference 2002, to be held Thursday, intends to connect consumers and farmers with the theme "Changing Times: Creating Opportunities in Agriculture." The event also celebrates the 20th anniversary of the foundation, which has helped identify and train many leaders in Hawai'i agriculture.

"We're trying to pull the industry together to focus on specific strategic issues," said Jane Yamashiro, a founding member of the foundation who is also director of business retention and expansion with the economic development organization Enterprise Honolulu.

"In this year's conference we're really focusing on marketing and the consumer.

"In the past, because of the plantation system, most of our agriculture was very production-oriented. People grew things and then went out to seek markets.

"But the way things are today, we need to know who our customers are and what products they want and how they would like to see those products packaged."

Hawai'i farm revenue in 2001 was $511 million, down 1 percent from the year before, according to the Hawaii Agricultural Statistics Service.

With the closing of many plantations, former agriculture superstars pineapple and sugar have steadily declined in value over the past decade. Pineapple revenues totaled just above $96 million in 2001, down 5 percent from 2000, while sugar brought in nearly $58 million, down nearly 8 percent.

But the value of diversified ag — defined as all crops but pineapple and sugar — rose 1 percent to $357 million in 2001, another record total for that sector, according to the statistics service.

Yamashiro said conference organizers expect about 400 people to attend the event, which will include sessions on new marketing trends, agri-tourism and developing alliances between farmers and chefs.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye will be the keynote speaker. Other speakers include John Ikerd, a national expert on sustainable agriculture and professor emeritus of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri; global futurist and Kohala resident Jim Channon; Jim Reddekopp of Hawaiian Vanilla Co.; Dean Okimoto of Nalo Farms; and Big Island chef Peter Merriman.

The conference also will present an award to Herbert Montague "Monty" Richards Jr. for his years of leadership in Hawai'i agriculture. Richards is president and chairman of Kahua Ranch in Kohala, a founder and first president of the Agricultural Leadership Foundation, and a member of numerous Hawai'i boards and commissions.

The conference will be held at the Sheraton Waikiki. The registration fee is $125 for the full day; $50 for students or lunch-only participants. For more information, call 732-2294.