ECONOMIC DIVERSITY IS KEY TO HC&S’ SURVIVAL
It’s the last one standing, clinging to an antiquated "plantation" era, which is long gone. Current news has focused on many issues, but the most important one may be the ability of this company and its workers to diversify.
Visionary co-partners could provide capital and technology, while HC&S provides land, leases and the work force. Ideas for diversity could be some of the following:
- Eliminate the middlemen and process locally the many varieties of confectionery and food sugars utilized throughout the world.
- Eco-agricultural tourism; this is a huge, virtually untapped market for Maui visitors. Co-develop a plantation-era camp with the new Hali’imaile Pineapple owners, complete with country stores, bakery and museum. An immersion package would spotlight sugar and pineapple history, production, fields, museum and products.
- Grow bamboo to manufacture construction products, high-end flooring, furniture and cabinetry, all produced in a local factory with Maui workers.
- Develop least-productive lands into revenue-producing energy farms. Solar, wind and solar thermal energy would be harvested and space for future algae biofuels secured. Additional lands could provide light industrial tracts for local businesses to lease.
- Become a Pacific region leader in agricultural food production. Vertical farming could be accomplished in glass, multistory hydroponic greenhouses with rotating produce beds. Units would be tied into the energy farms and water produced by atmospheric water generators.
HC&S is teetering on a fiscal precipice. The question is, are they willing and able to do something about it?
Mike Cummings
Waiehu
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR – Mauinews.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Visitor’s Information – The Maui News