So close!

So close! was Originally Posted on February 18, 2009 by lavarock

The area of new coffee is really coming along quickly.

The trench is finished and the holes in the upper half of the farm are almost done. They will be finished in a day or so. They left early yesterday to surf near Kealakekua Bay.

I had a guy give me a quote on fusing my 2″ water pipe and connecting all of the valves, the pump and so on. He can start in a week from Monday or so.

I have two competing people trying to sell me coffee trees to plant. One guys trees are smaller than the other guys, but cost less. They are in tubes and would plant fine in the lower half of the farm where many of the holes have started to close up from lack of planting soon after they were punched. The other guys trees, some have buds appearing on them and would likely bloom easily and might have coffee on the next year (although a less than full blooming). The smaller plants will take at least an extra year to bloom. I could mix and match (so to speak) but it would complicate pruning somewhat.

Since I am needing about 2000 trees at the moment, the difference in cost is considerable. The budding trees would cost me $10,000. The not so far along trees are $7,000. Although $3,000 might sound a small amount to quibble over, my cash flow is very tight and I still have roofing and some gutters to get done before I am done with the project. Granted, some of the money will be returned to me with my cost-sharing conservation contract, none of the plants or the planting cost or hole punching is included.

So when can I say that I finally have the trees in the ground?

The earliest would be about 3 week. I am pushing for a March planting and that works out just about right. That is, if the money holds out. Then it is just a waiting game for blossoms.

I ventured into this coffee business as a way to get some land in Hawaii and retire permanently. I didn’t seek out the coffee business, but have been able to change gears from the computer industry to farming. I knew it was a lot of work to convert the farm frommostly macadamia nut trees to all coffee, but went ahead anyway. That is a good thing, because the mac nut side of farming here has started on a downward spiral again. I got out in time. The Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut company box I saw last week said “Mfg in Mexico”. Their website says they can ship to Hawaii, but it must be express mail, so they are not even shipping from Hilo anymore, but from outside the state of Hawaii. I hear their mac nuts come from New Zealand and I can believe that. I pass a farm where they bagged up their nuts a year ago and they still sit in bags under the trees unsold.

There is no federal law that says coffe marketed under the title “Kona Coffee” must come from Kona or even Hawaii. That is a STATE LAW of Hawaii, so if it is sold in the state or imported into the state with a disclaimer of “100% Kona Coffee”, it had better say so and mean it! But on the mainland, they could sell Yuban as Kona Coffee. Someone could try to sue, but the company would counter that Kona Coffee does not need to come from Kona, the same as French Toast doesn’t have to come from France.

Another little gotcha. There is a push for companies to use the new marketing tag “Made in Hawaii”. It means that more than 50% of the value was added in Hawaii. That is all. So in the example of mac nuts, you could ship already cracked open nuts here to Hawaii, roast them and bag them here and call them “Made in Hawaii”, yet the nuts came from New Zealand. The value is greatly enhanced by roasting and salting them and bagging them, not from growing them.

This truth in labeling is being stretched by the middlemen and large companies. Farmers and ranchers take great pride in their products. Companies who only look at the bottom line are the problem. You can see this everyday in the stores. Juices that contain 10% juice and 90% sugar water. They call it juice or fruit drink. but it’s water, mostly water. Although I think for other reasons, maple syrup goes the same route. Most syrup comes from trees in Quebec and Vermont. Coming from maple trees, it has a limited crop and is greatly reduced from the original sap, thus they often add sucrose to it to spread it out. It takes 10 gal of sap to make a quart of syrup. Still, you have to look carefully to see if the product is 100% syrup or a mix.

At least my coffee will all be produced here in Hawaii, in the Kona District and will carry a “100% Kona” sticker on it.

So stay tuned over the next few weeks and you can see this part of the saga close and the new one open.