Maui prepares for the borer

After troubling farmers on Big Island for years and recently making their way to Oahu at the end of last year, Maui’s coffee industry is beginning to prepare itself for the destructive coffee borer beetle to make it to their shores, reports Myrtle Beach Online and other news entities.

The borer is a well-known pest that blights farmers the world over. The insect blights the coffee crops by burrowing into the coffee cherry and allowing its larvae to feast upon the bean, thus reducing both the quality and yield of affected harvests.

Despite the beetle’s presence on Hawaii’s Big Island, the remaining parts of Hawaii had been pest free – until it was found on Oahu. The barrier of the sea had been broken.

“I’ve been a farmer forever, and I know the reality of these kinds of things, so I expect that at some point it will show up here,” said Kimo Falconer. But the MauiGrown Coffee President stood firm, stating that they’re “ready”.

Some areas of Maui have already begun to install some preventative measures, including restricting access to their plantations.

“We’ve had to put signs up trying to reduce the amount of people walking through our fields,” continues Falconer.

“But really they can just walk right up there, and maybe they were in Kona yesterday doing a farm tour, and there’s dirt on their shoes.”

Reports also indicate that some farms have stopped offering education tours, as a preventative measure.

“The beetle is so tiny it gets spread by people coming [from elsewhere],” explains Sydney Smith, the president of the Maui Coffee Association.

It’s not known how the beetle – initially native to Africa – made its way to the island of Hawaii, but the only coffee growing county in the United States is the last region in the world to be, in some parts at least, free of the pest.

The state Department of Agriculture has issued a quarantine order that requires people to hold a permit in order to transport unroasted coffee beans and plants to and from the main island.