2008-09-19 TGREENWELLFARMS - Laserfiche WebLink

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so that kids could go pick coffee. But kids don’t pick coffee anymore. That hasn’t stopped the need for seasonal workers, and the estimation is that there’re probably more than a thousand seasonal workers who are brought into Kona on an annual basis to pick the Kona coffee crop. What the Greenwells are trying to do is really step out in front of this issue. They’ve managed with seasonal labor for some time, and I think what they realize is, part of their business plan is that in order to be successful at it, you have to be good at the seasonal labor business and you have to provide the kind of housing that people expect. As Taka was suggesting, Commissioner Taka Domingo, that to provide the quality of housing necessary, there is standards set in this issue. And I think that’s what they are attempting to do today. We did get permission to do three of these units. They are in place. They are 40-foot extra height containers that have been wrapped with timber and put windows and kitchens and doors, and there’re fully permitted septic systems in them. But that we are only allowed to use 35 acres that, to have those workers work on the 35 acres that Greenwell owns right there. The business plan for Greenwell Farms requires, or leaves them to wanting to serve and provide services to other farmers. And I think they pick and manage as many as 25 to 30 farms in the Kona region, assisting other people who aren’t as capable of managing their own farms and they’ll choose to pick it. So that’s, and for the most part that picking happens and then the crop comes back to the Greenwell Farms for the purpose of running and building their retail and processing capacity, so -. What I’d love to do is just to have you guys ask questions, and then I think Tommy is just willing to have any kind of questions asked. But I know this is an interesting topic to you, so please. WATANABE: Well, we have Mr. Greenwell. Do we have any questions for Mr. Greenwell? Yes, Mr. Woodward. WOODWARD: I’d like to ask, where do the seasonal workers come from when they come in, and where do they go back to, or do they go back when they leave? GREENWELL: Yes. WATANABE: Mr. Greenwell, could you, I swore you in, but just for the record, your name and address, please. GREENWELL: My name is Thomas Greenwell. I live at 81-6581 Mamalahoa Highway. WATANABE: Go ahead. You may respond. Thank you. GREENWELL: For the last 15, 20 years, a lot of our – a lot, and more and more every year – seasonal workers, coffee pickers are coming in from Mexico basically, some from, I mean Latin America, also Panama, Guatemala. We’ve been hiring them slowly a few more every year, and this is what comes up to the need of the housing. They fly in on their own, they get here, they come down, they apply for a job; that’s been the way Greenwell Farms has hired our seasonal workers. They bring down their documentations, what have you. I provide them rooms or a house where four or five guys are living in one until I have no housing. Then I tell them I’ll EXHIBIT B 6