Dole Food Co. is considering a plan to put some of its Hawai'i land up for sale under a strategy to shed nonstrategic or underperforming assets around the world.

Westlake Village, Calif.-based Dole, which is one of Hawai'i's largest private landowners and the second-largest pineapple producer in the state, said the idea is preliminary and does not involve land on which it grows crops.

"We are committed to our pineapple operations there, and our coffee and cacao," said Dole spokesman Marty Ordman from California. "Nothing is changing with that."

Dole last year reported farming about 2,700 acres of pineapple and 195 acres of coffee and cacao on O'ahu. According to the most recent information from the state Data Book, Dole was the seventh-largest Hawai'i private landowner with 28,472 acres.

Ordman said it would be premature to quantify or identify land being considered for possible sale. "It's very, very preliminary," he said of the idea.

'NONCORE' LAND SALES

Ordman also said he couldn't specify whether the land under consideration for sale is fallow, used by Dole for other purposes than farming, or leased to tenants who farm the land.

If Dole ends up selling Hawai'i real estate, it would add to thousands of acres of agricultural land in the state that has been on the market or sold in recent years, much of which was the result of major pineapple producer Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. shutting down local operations last year.

The state's largest pineapple producer, Maui Land & Pineapple Co., also has been selling pieces of "noncore" land in recent years.

Maui Land & Pine, which owns more than 25,000 acres on Maui and grows pineapple on roughly 4,000 acres, sold nearly 3,000 acres of mostly agricultural land in the past two years.

Dole disclosed its potential land sale effort in a quarterly financial report, saying the company is "considering a plan to market certain land parcels" in places including Hawai'i and Latin America.

The company has been in the process of selling assets that don't meet its future strategic direction or profit goals.

This year, Dole sold several Chilean farms, and in recent months classified 4,400 acres in California as assets held for sale. Earlier this year, other farmland for fruit and flower operations in California and Latin America were classified as assets held for sale.

Total assets held for sale were valued at $53 million, according to the report detailing three months of business ended Oct. 6.

Dole, which reported $6.2 billion in revenue last year, is the world's largest producer and marketer of fresh fruits, vegetables and cut flowers, and also markets a growing line of packaged and frozen foods.

The company is owned by billionaire David Murdock, who in 2003 bought out other holders of Dole's publicly traded stock in a $2.5 billion deal that took the firm private.

A STORIED HISTORY

Dole's presence in Hawai'i is a storied one, as it is the place where James Dole founded the company in 1901 as Hawaiian Pineapple Co. and made pineapple production Hawai'i's second-largest industry.

But over the past several decades, with the rise of Dole's international operations and a reduction in Hawai'i farming, much of the company's energy is now concentrated elsewhere.

According to Dole annual reports, the company's O'ahu farming of pineapple on 2,700 acres last year was down from 3,100 acres in 2005. As recently as 2001, the company reported farming 8,000 acres on O'ahu in pineapple as well as papaya and cacao, which included about 1,500 acres the company leased.

Despite the cutbacks, Dole's position in Hawai'i remains significant as a crop producer, employer and landowner.

In addition to the approximately 28,000 acres Dole owns, property records show the company also leases another roughly 20,000 acres, mostly from Kamehameha Schools.

Dole's land holdings don't include property held by its sister company, Castle & Cooke Inc. Castle & Cooke, which owns 98 percent of Lana'i and develops residential and commercial property in Hawai'i and the Mainland, is the third-largest private Hawai'i landowner with about 95,000 acres and also is owned by Murdock.

A decision to sell unproductive land wouldn't change Dole's status as the last major pineapple grower on O'ahu, but Hawai'i pineapple production has been on the decline.

Fresh Hawai'i pineapple production last year dropped to its lowest level since the state began keeping records in 1950.

DWINDLING PINEAPPLE

Much of the reason cited has been competition from foreign producers, and Del Monte's pullout is certain to send local pineapple production to a new low this year.

Florida-based Del Monte quit pineapple production in Hawai'i last year, returning 5,100 acres of leased land in Kunia to local landowner James Campbell Co.

Earlier, in 2004, Del Monte had quit farming pineapple on about 2,000 acres in Wahiawa leased from the George Galbraith Trust.

Campbell has been trying to sell its Kunia land, and has sold or received bids for much of the property, including a purchase earlier this year by Monsanto Co. of 2,300 acres for seed crop operations.

There was a January deadline to bid on the Galbraith land, but the property has not sold.

Andres Albano Jr., a senior vice president with commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis, said it has been challenging to sell such vast portions of farmland because the land is often too expensive for small diversified crop farmers but too big for a single user. "There's really no other single crop to replace sugar and pineapple," he said.

Albano, who also was involved in an effort five years ago to sell 70,000 acres of primarily agricultural land on the Big Island and Maui for C. Brewer & Co., said buyers for the Brewer property included wealthy individuals who planned to establish estates or hold the property for possible future development.

Private and public trusts and nonprofit organizations set up to preserve open space also have been active in buying Hawai'i agriculture property.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.