The Big Island is under a cloud of uncertainty

The coffee industry of the Big Island is entering a period of uncertainty.

Last year, Lehman Brothers acquired, through foreclosure, a large area of land in Ka’u, Hawaii. They are now on the verge of selling it all off.

Parts of the land on ‘the Big Island’ are currently let to coffee growers. As reported by West Hawaii Today, farmers and producers and worried that the prospective new land owners won’t renew their leases, causing a cloud of doubt to descend.

Some aren’t taking the risk: Francis and Trinidad Marques, who started the Alii Hawaiian Hula Hands in 1996 are beginning to look elsewhere.

“We took out another ten acres someplace else to be proactive,” Trinidad Marques said, before noting that the secondary location will not produce the same level of coffee.

 “I know the quality of the coffee isn’t going to be as great in that other area”

According to the Hawaiian press, Lehman Brothers reject a plea by the Hawaii County to remove the current land used by the coffee farmers from the bulk sale, favouring instead one major bulk sale.

The mayor, Billy Kenoi, said that the request was made on behalf of those who could be affected but that unfortunately the country was not in a position to make an offer to buy the leased lots outright.

Kenoi did confirm that whoever buys the land in question, the government will sit down and ‘look [at] how we can protect our coffee farmers.’

However, there are a number of reasons to remain optimistic.

The Ka’u region is a successful and profitable agricultural region on the island, which supports a thriving community and, importantly, the state has benefited to this success. It seems that any attempt to bulldoze or uproot this industry would not be profitable for the prospective buyer, but, crucially, it will be met vehemently by opposition from political quarters.

We’ll be keeping an eye on developments though despite the potential for danger, we feel, and hope, that things will carry on the way they have been for years.

Photo: morguefile