Hawaii Insider : Prickly issue of vanishing pineapple

Growing sugarcane and pineapple is hard work, as generations of plantation and farm workers in Hawai’i can attest, but making money at it these days may be even harder. While conditions have improved in modern times for the islands’ fieldworkers, the competition from Third World countries — with different standards of living and labor laws — has also increased.

One of the latest large landowners to cry uncle is Maui Land & Pineapple, which announced Nov. 3 that its pineapple subsidiary — renowned for its "Maui Gold" brand — would cease production at the end of the year. Citing losses of $115 million since 2002, along with $20 million in expenses for a new packing facility, the announcement continued: "The painful decision to close pineapple operations at MPC after 97 years was incredibly difficult to make, but absolutely necessary. We realize this ends a significant chapter in Maui’s history — an important part of many lives, over many generations."

The company’s last harvest took place two days before Christmas, but just before New Year’s, a group of investors came up with a plan to continue operations on about 1,000 acres — a third of the former farm — under the name Haliimaile Pineapple.

New company to take over pineapple operations – The Maui News

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New company to take over pineapple operations

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POSTED: December 31, 2009

The newly formed Haliimaile Pineapple Co. Ltd. announced today it would immediately take over 1,000 acres and related facilities from Maui Pineapple Co., under an agreement signed Thursday with Maui Land & Pineapple Co.

The new company’s first day of work will be Saturday, when employees will start picking Maui Gold fruit, said Doug Schenk, one of the six local partners in the venture.

Maui Pine’s last harvest was Dec. 23. The company had announced it was leaving the business earlier this year after recording continuous, large losses.

The owners and directors of the new venture are Pardee Erdman, owner of Ulupalakua Ranch; Schenk, Doug MacCluer and Ed Chenchin, all retired Maui Pine managers; and two men who were operating directors of Maui Pine until it closed, Strand and Rudy Balala.

Haliimaile Pine has licensed and purchased assets notably the Maui Gold patented variety and leased land, equipment and buildings from Maui Pine.

Haliimaile Pine will do its own marketing, targeting local retailers, hotels and restaurants.

FINAL HARVEST: Sun sets on ML&P cultivation of pineapple – The Maui News

Deal in works for new, smaller company to farm golden fruit

By ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer

POSTED: December 24, 2009

WAILUKU

Fieldworkers picked their last pineapples Wednesday as Maui Pineapple Co. ceased operations after 100 years of farming.

About 285 Maui Pine workers are being laid off in the shutdown, with their last official day of employment Dec. 31. Another 133 employees were expected to be offered positions at Maui Land & Pineapple partner companies.

Some remained hopeful a startup company would take over Maui Pine land, equipment and operations to continue pineapple farming on Maui and hire back some of the laid-off workers.

Del Monte quitting pineapple here | The Honolulu Advertiser

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  • Del Monte’s news of closure stuns, upsets workers
  • Union optimistic about retraining, aid

By Dan Nakaso and Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writers

Del Monte Fresh Produce will plant its last pineapple crop this month at the Kunia plantation and cease its more than century-old Hawai’i operation at the end of 2008, eliminating the jobs of more than 700 pineapple workers on O’ahu.

Some of the Del Monte employees include husbands, wives and children in the same families, said Fred Galdones, president of the ILWU’s Local 142, which represents the unionized workers.

"It will have a very far-reaching effect on the families," said Galdones, whose union represented thousands of sugar workers who lost their jobs when O’ahu’s sugar industry died a decade ago. "Like the sugar workers, this will be very traumatic for those families."

State Rep. Michael Magaoay, D-46th (Kahuku, North Shore, Schofield), who grew up in the Mill Camp of the now-defunct Waialua Sugar plantation, said: "We need to look at the hysteria that people are going to have."

Del Monte’s decision will leave Dole Food Co. as the only major pineapple grower on O’ahu. Dole employs about 250 unionized workers, Galdones said.

Maui Land & Pineapple’s subsidiary, Maui Pineapple Co., remains the state’s largest pineapple producer, with operations on more than 6,000 acres on Maui, according to Brian Nishida, Maui Pineapple’s president and CEO.

In 2004, Hawai’i’s pineapple industry employed 1,200 workers, according to state figures.