$1m to fight the Coffee Berry Borer
Coffee producers in Hawaii have been fighting the Coffee Berry Borer for some time now but according to reports in the American press they are going to get a helping hand from Washington.
The U.S Department of Agriculture has announced that fund totalling $1m were to be released, with the money being split between the island state and farmers in Puerto Rico, who are also suffering from insect infestation. This pot of cash will help bankroll research initiatives and eradication programmes.
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Hawaiian Coffee bill quashed
Six weeks ago we asked you a simple question: “How Hawaiian is Hawaiian coffee?”
The answer actually shocked a few people as we revealed that under current legislation as little as 10% of Kona Coffee has to come from Hawaii’s Big Island for it to be legally packaged and sold as Kona coffee. Unsurprisingly, there was a movement to try and up that percentage and get the current law changed.
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Oahu’s coffee borer quarantine expanded
The islands of Hawaii may be situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, miles away from mainland America, but its picturesque geographical location hasn’t protected its farmers from the dreaded and devastating coffee berry borer, which has plagued coffee growers since the crop was first commercialised.
Last year, the pest spread. An action plan failed to contain the insect and in December the state Department of Agriculture (DoA) admitted that the borer had been found on farms in Waialua, Oahu. These areas were isolated and there was a ban on the transportation of unroasted coffee beans off the island.
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How Hawaiian is Hawaiian coffee?
The answer to the question posed in the article’s title is that it “can vary”.
But politicians, state officials and local coffee farmers are hoping to clear some remarkably muddy waters by pushing for legislative reform.
“For more than twenty-three years, Hawaii has been the only region in the world that statutorily authorizes the use of its geographic names, such as ‘Kona’, ‘Maui’ and ‘Ka’u’, on labels of its specialty agricultural products,” the current bill states.
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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.
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Coffee Berry Borer spreads to Oahu
Certain coffee growers in the U.S state of Hawaii are familiar with the coffee berry borer after struggling with the invasive pest for the past four years. But despite introducing a new action plan earlier on in the year, the insect has now spread and has begun to settle in previously borer-free areas.
Last Wednesday, the state Department of Agriculture (DoA) confirmed that the borer had been discovered on farms in Waialua, Oahu.
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Hawaii plans a fight back against the borer
It has been a few months since we turned our attention to the island state of Hawaii, the only part of America which grows coffee.
At the turn of the year we reported that farmers on the island were facing a period of uncertainty as the investment firm Lehman Brothers acquired large swathes of land on Ka’u, and were planning to sell it – including parts on which coffee was grown – off.
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Hawaiian farmer stands up for coffee bean labelling rights
Did you know that Hawaii is the only area in the United States of America that grows its own coffee?
The Hawaiian farmers are very proud of their Kona coffee beans, grown on slopes of volcanic rock, which are renowned the world over and they will fight to preserve the reputation and brand of their coffee.
This was evidenced recently, as reported in the local press, when Hawaiian Paul Uster took on a supermarket chain that was not giving his country’s coffee beans their due, as required by law.
What happened? Uster was on holiday in California and noticed that the packaging of some Kona coffee was incorrect.
The coffee was marketed as the Kona blend as part of the Safeway brand. Now, most people would not realise that this is, in fact, in breach of the Aloha state laws which insist that Hawaiian-coffee must (a) be clear about the percentage of Kona coffee beans in a blend and (b) state whether it is grown in Hawaii.
These laws were created both as information for customers and also to preserve the reputation of the premier coffee bean.
The supermarket blend was just under $9 per pound in weight, but 8 ounces of pure Kona can fetch a stunning $25.
However, Uster who is himself a farmer and also a direct of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association realised immediately that the Hawaiian protocol had not been followed.
Hawaii’s Department of Agriculture became involved and a meeting has taken place between Safeway supermarkets and the farmers, who await to see how Safeway will deal in future with their labelling.