01-04-2010, 12:30 PM
"Does anyone have any ideas why coffee isn't grown commercially to any extent in East Hawaii?"
Long before I found I was allergic to coffee I followed facts about the industry.
As per why there isn't much commercial grown coffee in most other regions of Hawaii is a matter of the price the coffee can fetch. Coffee grown in Kona is a world wide award winning favorite hands down and get's a good price per pound effectively allowing it to be shipped with a good profit. It's used as a flavor tempering bean in many mixtures from around the world. The flavor is responsible for this and that flavor comes from the relative virgin nutrient rich lava soils. East Hawaii in the Puna District has plenty of areas that can provide equally nutrient rich lava soils and if the coffees were entered into tasting events... they might become just as desired as Kona coffees are.
Most other regions of Hawaii are too dry or have dirt soils effectively lacking the nutrient rich soils necessary to provide the robust aroma but mellow flavor of the Kona grown coffees.
Long and Short... the folks growing in Puna need to get their coffees out to the tasting events. If they set up a Puna coffee growers association and began there by doing tasting events in that manner and took the finest of these coffees to the world tasting events, they may get on the fine coffee growers map and fetch the prices necessary to ship and make a good profit.
Here's the history for Puna, Kau, etc:
http://www.hawaii-county.com/bigislandag/coffee.html
E ho'a'o no i pau kuhihewa.
Long before I found I was allergic to coffee I followed facts about the industry.
As per why there isn't much commercial grown coffee in most other regions of Hawaii is a matter of the price the coffee can fetch. Coffee grown in Kona is a world wide award winning favorite hands down and get's a good price per pound effectively allowing it to be shipped with a good profit. It's used as a flavor tempering bean in many mixtures from around the world. The flavor is responsible for this and that flavor comes from the relative virgin nutrient rich lava soils. East Hawaii in the Puna District has plenty of areas that can provide equally nutrient rich lava soils and if the coffees were entered into tasting events... they might become just as desired as Kona coffees are.
Most other regions of Hawaii are too dry or have dirt soils effectively lacking the nutrient rich soils necessary to provide the robust aroma but mellow flavor of the Kona grown coffees.
Long and Short... the folks growing in Puna need to get their coffees out to the tasting events. If they set up a Puna coffee growers association and began there by doing tasting events in that manner and took the finest of these coffees to the world tasting events, they may get on the fine coffee growers map and fetch the prices necessary to ship and make a good profit.
Here's the history for Puna, Kau, etc:
http://www.hawaii-county.com/bigislandag/coffee.html
E ho'a'o no i pau kuhihewa.