Kona Coffee Farmers Call For Boycott

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Kona Coffee Farmers Call For Boycott was Originally Posted on July 23, 2011 by

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SAFEWAY’S DECEPTIVE LABELING LEADS KONA COFFEE FARMERS TO CALL FOR BOYCOTT

KAILUA KONA, HAWAII, July 21, 2011 Safeway’s mainland stores are selling coffee labeled as “Safeway Select Kona Blend”, complete with a label that reads “Revel in the unmatched taste of savory beans from Hawaii’s Big Island”. The package sells for one quarter the price of genuine Kona coffee as sold by Peet’s and Starbucks, and Safeway has freely admitted that the coffee they sell contains only “some” Kona coffee and they decline to say what percentage is genuine or what the origin of the fake beans is.

By a resolution passed this week, the Kona Coffee Farmers Association is calling for a nationwide boycott of all Safeway stores in response to Safeway’s total disregard of concerns about the sale of deceptively labeled “Safeway Select Kona Blend”. At KFCAs request, in April, Chairman Kokubun of the Hawaii Department of Agriculture sent Safeway a letter to “strongly urge voluntary compliance with our coffee labeling laws “. More than three months later, Safeway has yet to respond to Kokubuns letter.

Colehour Bondera, President of the KCFA, stated “Safeways deceptive labeling amounts to consumer fraud, damaging the economic interests of Kona coffee farmers and harming the historic reputation of one of Hawaiis premier agricultural products.”

Bruce Corker, Chair of the KCFA Legislative Committee, said “KFCA is calling on customers in Hawaii and on the mainland to boycott Safeway stores until Safeway accurately labels its coffee.” He further explained, “KCFA has no problem with retailers mixing coffee origins to make whatever blend they think their customers will enjoy. But those mixtures should be accurately labeled so as not to mislead customers.” The KCFA has, since its inception, held the view that deceptively labeled blends damage the reputation of Kona coffee by misleading consumers into drinking an inferior product that they then associate with the Kona name, leading to a loss of perceived value, and actual value for Kona coffee farmers. 100% Kona coffee is one of Hawaii’s premier agricultural products of which the State is very proud. Safeway is perpetuating damaging exploitation of the Kona coffee reputation, and needs to be persuaded to change the labeling of its “Safeway Select Kona Blend “to prominently disclose the percentage of Kona-grown coffee and the origin of the non-Kona coffee in the package.

Additional information on the Kona coffee blend law and the economic impact of blending is available at these locations on the KCFA site
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10 Percent Blend Law here: http://www.konacoffeefarmers.org/10_Percent_Blend_Law.asp

and

The Economic Analysis of Blending here http://tinyurl.com/4wxrh4k

The Kona Coffee Farmers Association is a volunteer, non-profit, community-based organization of coffee farmers with the mission to promote and protect the economic interests of Kona coffee farmers who grow and sell 100% Kona coffee and to seek greater legal protection of the Kona coffee name.

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Thank you!

Kona Coffee Farmers Association

http://www.konacoffeefarmers.org