Posted on: Tuesday, June 10, 2003

EDITORIAL
Sugar, pineapple keep a place in Hawai'i

It's a certainty that Hawai'i's sugar cane and pineapple industries will never regain the dominance they once had over our agricultural industry — and indeed our entire economy.

But as staff writer Sean Hao reports, remaining sugar and pineapple plantations have managed to stop their decline and, in fact, have shown something of a comeback.

This is good news for the economy, for those particular industries and for Hawai'i overall. Both crops are indelibly locked into the world's perception of Hawai'i, and it would be a shame to see them disappear altogether.

Visitors, particularly first-time visitors, expect to see waving fields of sugar cane and lush fields of pineapple.

Part of the recent success of both sugar and pineapple has been due to "repositioning" the crops as high-end, boutique products. This means focusing on fresh pineapple and coming up with new varieties that have extra consumer appeal.

Sugar is being marketed as high-end Hawai'i sugar that sells to people willing to pay something extra for a distinctive product.

This is bound to be the way to go for most Hawai'i agricultural products. We can hardly compete with mass industrial agriculture in other parts of the world where labor costs are low compared to ours. But we can produce crops, from familiar sugar and pineapple to newer products coming out of the diversified agriculture industry that carry the lure of the Islands and a price differential.