It's a boooom year for 'Ewa pumpkins

By Sean Hao
Advertiser Staff Writer

Aloun Farms' Alipio Pascual, left, and Lorenzo T. Puyaoan load pumpkins into bins, ready for delivery to markets. You'll see more homegrown jack-o'-lanterns this year. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Last year, an estimated 30,000 pumpkins rotted after unusual mid-October weather dumped 4 inches of rain onto the 'Ewa fields of Aloun Farms, the only commercial pumpkin grower in the Islands.

The damp weather was an unfortunate turn of events for Aloun, which for the first time had commitments to provide pumpkins to nearly every major supermarket chain in the Islands. Because Mainland orders couldn't arrive in time, Hawai'i faced a pumpkin shortage that had some last-minute shoppers scrambling to find their Halloween pumpkins.

So far this year the weather has cooperated, and Aloun plans to harvest a record 83 acres of pumpkin, up from 57 acres last year.

Overall, Aloun expects to supply 70 percent of the state's pumpkin demand — up from less than 50 percent last year. The farms plan to harvest about 71,000 premium-grade pumpkins for jack- o'-lantern use, 20,000 cooking pumpkins and 114,000 decorative mini-pumpkins.

"So far the field we have is looking good," said Mike Sou, production manager for Aloun. "I think we have more than enough to supply the Islands."

Last year's late rain caused farm-level sales of pumpkins in Hawai'i to dip to $160,000 from $164,000 in 2001 despite a more than doubling of harvested acreage, according to the Hawai'i Agricultural Statistics Service.

This year "might be the best year yet," Sou said.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8093.