Author: bigwave

January 10, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Let’s start doing more to develop local agriculture | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Fifty years after statehood, most of the plantations have gone fallow or become "gentleman’s estates." There are 6,500 "farmers" in Hawai’i, but only half are full time. The average farmer is 59, with an annual income of $10,000.

Ignoring the need for food security, we import at least 85 percent of our food and send billions to faraway agribusinesses when we could keep the money here to strengthen our self-sufficiency, enrich our economy and employ our jobless.

We were once a world leader in agricultural production. Now farmers have overwhelming challenges in land, water, infrastructure, pests, NIMBY, encroachment, transportation costs and burdensome bureaucracy, not to mention cheap foreign competition.

Can agriculture survive in Hawai’i?

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January 10, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Details of pineapple deal are released – The Maui News

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WAILUKU – Maui Land & Pineapple Co. sold its pineapple operation to the new Haliimaile Pineapple Co. for less than a third of its value, according to a report by ML&P.

In the filing dated Dec. 31, ML&P disclosed that it sold Haliimaile Pine its equipment, materials, supplies and customer lists valued at about $3 million for a price tag of $680,000, to be paid over five years.

The agreement, signed New Year’s Eve between the two companies, also granted Haliimaile Pine the exclusive rights to use Maui Pineapple Co. logos and trade names for a license fee based on sales volumes that would be around $20,000 to $30,000 each year.

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January 9, 2010 Agricultural Equipment, Agriculture Grants, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Pine land to cost $420K a year | The Honolulu Advertiser

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By Rick Daysog
Advertiser Staff Writer

A group that plans to restore pineapple growing on Maui will pay $420,000 a year to lease agricultural lands held by Maui Land & Pineapple Co.

Haliimaile Pineapple Co. also will pay $680,000 to purchase ML&P’s farm equipment, supplies and customer lists, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

ML&P announced in November that it was shutting down pineapple operations after nearly 100 years of plantation-scale farming on the Valley Isle. The company harvested its final crop last month and laid off 206 workers.

But Haliimaile — whose principals include former ML&P executives Doug MacCluer and Ed Chenchin and Ulupalakua Ranch owner Pardee Erdman — said last week they plan restore pineapple farming on 950 acres of ML&P’s 3,000-acre pineapple operations .

The new company said it also will take over ML&P’s Maui Gold brand and will hire back 66 displaced pineapple workers.

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January 9, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Hawaii and Related Agriculture Daily Charts for the week ending 01-08-2010

hawaii-agriculture-logo

The annual charts have bee updated. CLICK HERE to view. The 360 day comparative price, line and histogram charts, page has been updated also. CLICK HERE to view.

Maui Land and Pineapple (MLP) 01-08-2010
Maui Land and Pineapple (MLP)

Calavo Growers (CVGW) 01-08-2010
Calavo Growers (CVGW)

Alexander and Baldwin (ALEX) 01-08-2010
alexweek010810

Monsanto (MON) 01-08-2010
Monsanto (MON)

Syngenta (SYT) 01-08-2010
Syngenta (SYT)

DUPONT E I DE NEM (DD) 01-08-2010
Syngenta (SYT)

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January 8, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Maui Pine assets sold for quarter of worth – Pacific Business News

The group that bought the assets of Maui Pineapple Co. paid a fraction of what the company’s equipment, materials, supplies and customer lists were worth, according to a filing with federal regulators.

The partners of Haliimaile Pineapple Co. acquired the equipment and other items for $680,000, to be paid over five years. The assets had a book value of $3 million, according Maui Land and Pineapple Co.’s filing this week with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission

Haliimaile Pineapple will also pay ML&P (NYSE: MLP) between $20,000 and $30,000 a year to use the Maui Pineapple trade marks, trade names such as Maui Gold, and logos, and will lease 950 acres and 59,000 square feet of office and warehouse space at market rents, which is about $420,000 per year, for 20 years. The new company hired 66 workers of the 206 workers who were terminated by Maui Pine on Dec. 31, which will decrease ML&P’s severance costs, the company said in the filing.

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January 8, 2010 Agricultural Equipment, General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Maui Pine was at a discount – Hawaii Business – Starbulletin

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A pineapple startup bought equipment from the shuttered Valley Isle operation for $680,000

By Dave Segal

Haliimaile Pineapple Co., the startup that is resurrecting the pineapple industry on Maui, purchased Maui Pineapple Co.’s operating equipment, materials, supplies and customer lists for a discounted price of $680,000, and also agreed to other financial terms to keep the agricultural business alive on the Valley Isle.

Financially ailing Maui Land & Pineapple Co., which sold its pineapple operations to Haliimaile Pineapple last month as part of a broad-based restructuring, said in a regulatory filing yesterday that the net book value (assets minus liabilities) of the equipment and other items—which are due to be paid by Haliimaile Pineapple over five years—was about $3 million.

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January 7, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Maui Pineapple erntet letzten Ertrag – Frucht Portal

Maui Pineapple erntet letzten Ertrag

Geschlagen durch ausländischen Wettbewerb und eine stockende Wirtschaft, beendet der letzte große Ananaserzeuger auf Hawaii, Maui Land & Pineapple Co. Inc., seine letzte Ernte nach 97 Jahren in dem Landwirtschaftsgeschäft. Der letzte Ertrag wurde am 23. Dezember auf den Feldern bei Haliimaile geerntet, was das Ende einer Ära markiert, in der einst Ananas ein großer Arbeitgeber in dem Staat war. Maui Pineapple pflanzte seine ersten Früchte 1912 auf West-Maui.

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January 7, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Maui Pineapple Production Resurrected

January 07, 2010
HYPER LOCAL

Reports of pineapple’s demise on Maui were, if not greatly exaggerated, at least premature. From the ashes of Maui Land & Pineapple’s defunct agricultural arm rises Haliimaile Pineapple Company, a venture backed by several former ML&P executives. In a December 31 release, CEO Darren Strand said the company "brings new hope…by immediately saving 65 agricultural jobs with an expectation of adding more in the future." Of course, the issues that doomed ML&P—and plantation-style ag in general—still loom, but hey, it’s the New Year. If you can’t be optimistic now, when can you?…

Loyal Bushies in the Honolulu First Circuit and Maui Pineapple Production Resurrected

January 7, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Maui Pineapple Co. executives start new company | The Packer

Five former Maui Pineapple Co. executives are working with Pardee Erdman of Ulupalakua Ranch to take over pineapple operations from Maui Land & Pineapple Co. Inc.

The new company, Haliimaile Pineapple Co. Ltd., plans continue to grow and market fresh pineapple under the established Maui Gold Brand. The company purchased and licensed key assets, and leased farm land, equipment, and buildings from ML&P with plans to serve the Hawai’i market, according to a news release. The company officially opened Jan. 1.

Key shareholders and directors in the new company include Pardee Erdman, owner of Ulupalakua Ranch; Doug Schenk, former president of Maui Pineapple Co.; former vice presidents of MPC, Doug MacCluer and Ed Chenchin; and current operating directors for MPC, Darren Strand and Rudy Balala.

Haliimaile Pineapple Co. plans consolidate growing, fresh fruit packing facility, cold storage and shipping operations in Haliimaile. It sells fresh pineapple to local hotels, restaurants, and supermarkets and plans to increase  direct-to-consumer business.

Maui Pineapple Co. executives start new company | The Packer