COM 0212.453 1996-1998 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Hawaii Tropical Fruit Cooperative P.O. Box 1390 Kealakekua, HI 96750 (808) 322-0935 fax (808) 322-0728 The Hawaii Tropical Fruit Cooperative wholeheartedly supports passage, of Hawaii County Ordinance 62. We have pledged to use the irradiator' facility for 100% of our fruit requiring treatment for fruit fly disinfestation. We have five members on the Big Island and one member on Kauai. We have over 350 acres of fruit trees planted. We buy and market fruit from another 20 growers. We are all small family farms. Most of our plantings are relatively new and as such we are currently harvesting a very small amount of the eventual production from those plantings. Our fruit crops include lychee, rambutan, longan, starfruit, atemoya, mango and white pineapple. Our estimate for production in 1998 is 1.5 million pounds. Our coop members sold over $250,000 of just rambutan alone this season. Our group represents the leaders in the development of commercial planting of these new crops but by no means are the only persons in Hawaii with plantings or interest in planting these crops. For over fifty years fruit fly has been the cause of a barrier between Hawaii and the mainland preventing Hawaii from selling its fruit to our own country. For fifty years teams of talented entomolgists and scientists have tried to devise ways to overcome this problem. No treatment is available for our fruit products that does not adversly affect fruit quality and marketability, except irradiation. Our commercial test shipments have demonstrated irradiation technology is an effective treatment for rambutan, lychee, papaya, starfruit atemoya, and citrus. A post harvest fruit fly disinfestation facility located in Hawaii is vital to any future expansion of our industry. Our members and many new potential exotic fruit growers are waiting for a-clear signal that a treatment facility will be built before making any new plantings. If a facility were to be built our coop members planting acreage would double within a year of the announcement. We are in a classic catch 22. No one is willing to plant crops needing disinfestation treatment until a treatment facility is built