Clouds in your Coffee
Clouds in your Coffee was Originally Posted on April 6, 2012 by lavarock
A brief history and a call to action.
In 1828, coffee appeared in Kona Hawaii and over the years has become a respected and desired beverage. Kona farmers have taken great pride in their product.
While some locations in the world mechanically pick their coffee, Kona is still handpicked. Also, Hawaiian farmers pay a premium price to the pickers. A good picker can make $200 a day here while in a foreign country may get a few dollars for the same effort. Thus our price is a bit higher, and our quality shows it.
Over 10 years ago, Kona Coffee farmers sued a large company named Kona Kai. Kona Kai had been putting Central American coffee in bags marked Kona and had been cheating the public. In 1996, Federal officials convicted the owner of wire fraud and money laundering.
After this happened, the state of Hawaii passed a mandatory grading and origin certification bill. It requires state officials to verify the size and quality of coffee before it is roasted. After roasting it would be impossible to verify what coffee was in a package.
Kona Kai was one of 4 companies who had successfully fought the farmers and kept them from trademarking their “Kona Coffee”. The other 3 companies are major blenders. One company, Captain Cook Coffee Company was recently accused of “human trafficking” by the government. They recently merged with one of the other blenders who blocked the trademarking.
Why would the blenders want to keep the name “Kona Coffee” from being trademarked? It would keep them from using the name on a blend that only contained 10% Kona and 90% other coffee. This is what passes for a Kona Blend and the public continues to think they can taste 10% smooth flavorful Kona in a mass of 90% more bitter coffee.
Recently Kona Coffee farmers have been fighting a coffee borer beetle, which has been found in other coffee growing areas around the world. The top grades of coffee are next to impossible to attain and these blenders and processors are having problems meeting existing contracts they have. We smaller farms just sell what we produce and label it as such. Even though it is an added expense, we farmers want our customers to have confidence that they are getting and paying for what they think they are buying. The big companies don’t want that certification.
A recent bill submitted to our legislature asks to repeal the mandatory certification of Kona Coffee and leaves the certification up to the blenders. Talk about leaving the hen house guarded by the foxes!
The state officials have already passed this bill even though we vigorously defended it. Our only hope is to have the Governor repeal it.
The Kona Coffee Farmers Association asks you to sign our petition and if you wish, to also write to the Governor as a consumer of Kona Coffee to express your feelings on this matter.
The survey is located at: http://tinyurl.com/ckqlwdu
Your purchases of Hawaii products add to our tax income. As you can imagine, the main purchasers of Kona Coffee are not Hawaii residents. We can grow it here.
Thanks for your consideration on this important issue. We farmers want you to get the product you come to expect.