Ka`u News Briefs Friday, Oct. 9, 2015

      Ka`u Coffee growers, who are currently exploring options that would allow them to purchase the land as a group, have said that if the land is subdivided, and roads, utilities and other infrastructure installed, many would not be able to afford the purchase. Most of the farmers already own their own homes in Ka`u and travel from the villages to their farms.
      Ah San told Yager, “I think if they are not willing to bend and meet the farmers, if they are going to try to break the land up and sell it off to gentlemen farmers, I don’t think it’s going to fly.”

      Another issue is RLH’s proposed increase in license fees from the current $150 per acre per year to $600, with additional increases in the future. “I would say that tripling the rent is beyond the point of abusive,” coffee broker and diversified farmer Malian Lahey told Yager. She also objected to the license stating that RLH would own the coffee trees, telling Yager that taking possession of coffee trees that the farmers planted themselves is against Hawai`i law. Farmers stated at their recent meeting that they cannot purchase tree insurance if they don’t own the coffee trees and pointed to their expired licenses with former sugar company C. Brewer that led them to believe they own the trees.
      McCulley said RLH isn’t trying to take possession of the coffee trees. He also said the company would have legal right to ownership of the orchards, “the same as any other plant with perennial roots that have been growing for more than a year,” Yager reported.
      Coffee grower Joan Obra and Miguel Meza, who markets Ka`u Coffee, partnered with UH College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources to develop a risk assessment based on increased license fees. The detailed analysis showed break-even scenarios for the farmers given their land cost and coffee berry borer risks. According to their study, the CBB population is increasing, requiring growers to spend more money on control measures. With such expenditures and increased license fees, it becomes more likely that some growers could quit and abandon farms, making the berry borer more likely to spread to other farms, sending the entire industry into a downward spiral.
      McCully told Yager, “We’re not trying to take the licenses away; we’re trying to write licenses so they can stay and farm the land. And if they don’t want to, we want others of their brethren to come do it.”
      McCully said, “There’s some good business up there. We want to promote it; we want it to expand. We’re not going to be foolish; we’re not going to kill the goose.”
      McCully also told Yager that RLH’s license proposals would allow farmers to gain financing in a way they could not under previous arrangements. RLH is proposing licenses that are fixed for 10 years and negotiable for five more.
      At a meeting on Sept. 27 about the farmers’ lack of land security, state Rep. Richard Onishi asked representatives of current owner Lehman Brothers, of New York, and RLH whether they would consider selling the land to the farmers. Tom Yeh, a Hilo attorney representing Resource Land Holdings, said he would take the question back to his client.

See kaucalendar.com/Directory2015.swf and kaucalendar.com/Directory2015.pdf.

See kaucalendar.com/KauCalendar_October2015.pdf.