Coffee Takeover!

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Coffee Takeover! was Originally Posted on January 24, 2006 by

If you are a specialty and/or upscale coffee drinker, read on.

The Kona Coffee Council, the group which has been promoting 100% Kona Coffee has been taken over by big business. Tossed aside are the small farms. Their votes didn’t count.

A few big processors decided that they did not like the idea of 100% Kona being promoted, so they went through their companies and told employees that they would sign them up, then came and paid cash for all of those people. Oh voting proxies for non-attending members was legal, but voting giant blocks of proxies for people who probably had no idea what the issues were? Certainly immoral. But you know, that is how they do their business.

Many of these processors sell 100% Kona coffee, but they also sell a Kona blend. As readers here know, a “Kona Blend” is NOT a blend of Kona coffees, it is a blend of usually 90% foreign coffee and 10% Kona (American) coffee. The State of Hawaii allows them to call it a Kona Blend if there is a minimum of 10% Kona beans in it. Consumers rarely see the note “10% Kona Coffee” on the label and think they have a Kona Coffee.

Years ago when the KCC tried to trademark Kona Coffee so we could control the quality and advertising, processors like this blocked that with lots of money.

Now they bought the election and have a majority of their own members on the Board. I suspect that few of previous Boards projects for 100% Kona will be continued. Rather they more than likely will be quietly swept under the rug.

We saw it happening, but with the money they had to buy memberships, we opted not to. If we had, it would have just see-sawed back and forth until they finally won again next time with even more funds.

Over the next few months you will read about this issue in this and other blogs. There will be newspaper articles and discussions.

If you want a blend, then by all means, get it. Enjoy it. Just know that a 10% Kona blend is 90% something else, and they don’t want you to know what that is. It could be African, Columbian, any kind of stuff they call coffee.

Imagine filling up the car with 10 gallons of “gasoline” where 1 gallon was actually gas and 9 gallons was water…

I want you to know that we farmers in Kona will continue to ship PURE 100% Kona Coffee. No gimmicks, not hocus-pocus. Look for the words “100% KONA COFFEE” on any product you buy. Shun anything with the words “BLEND” anywhere in the label or identity statement.

Don’t be fooled. Don’t be misled. The word must be spread!