Posted on: Monday, October 13, 2003

EDITORIAL
Tropical ag once again high-tech boon to Isles

The international battle over rights to the popular super-sweet "gold" variety of fresh pineapple demonstrates again the critical role Hawai'i can play in the worldwide agricultural market.

The "gold" variety was developed by the Pineapple Research Institute on Maui and has grown to be a hugely popular variety.

Maui Land & Pine says demand for its premium "Hawaiian Gold" fruit is so strong that it will convert all of its acreage to the variety.

Fresh Del Monte Produce, a company now based in the Cayman Islands, is growing huge amounts of its variety of the fruit in Costa Rica.

By all accounts, the market is big enough, and growing fast enough, to accommodate both the Hawaiian pineapples and those grown overseas. But eventually, as has been the case with so many agricultural products developed in the Islands, production will begin to shift overseas where land and labor are both cheaper.

That's sad, in a way, but in no way a death blow to our local agricultural industry.

Canny marketing of Hawai'i-grown products as being premium, gourmet-quality items will help. That's already been demonstrated.

And second, Hawai'i is emerging as an international center for "high-tech" agricultural innovation — of research and product development that is later shared with the rest of the world.

Hawai'i has a strong future ahead if the industry continues to receive the proper amount of support and promotion it deserves.