HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0799.001 2006-2008
75-6153 Ho'omama Street
Kailua Kona HI 96740
November 2A, 2007
Honorable Council Members:
My name is Christine Sheppard, resident of Kailua Kona, I was a coffee farmer for ten years and for the
last two years have a business custom coffee roasting for small farms.
I support this Resolution because our coffee is being debased by adulterated coffee using our Kona name.
Crops like pineapple and sugar that were once closely identified with Hawaii have disappeared from
island farmlands, but Kona coffee remains a premium product unmatched by any other grown in the
United States.
How much longer the coffee can hold on to its cachet will largely depend on protecting the brand from
blends that cash in on the Kona name though they contain very little of the genuine beans.
Legislation that clearly distinguishes the specialty coffee from inferior commodity products is sorely
needed. Failing that, Hawaii could soon lose an important crop.
The Kona Coffee industry is generally divided between those who grow the coffee and those who process
the beans.
The problem is perspective. Processors see slapping "Kona" on labels as a way to increase sales volume,
thereby increasing demand. But farmers view their harvests as a high-value niche product whose prices
should reflect its quality, not diluted by blended quantity.
Farmers could see their crop reap higher returns as long as the Kona name is protected, but processors
fear they would have to raise retail prices, cutting into sales and profit margins.
And to add to the disgrace, the consumer is being defrauded by Kona blends, even though the label on the
coffee is currently legal.
We are told over and over again by processors, "that Kona blends serve consumers who can't afford pure
Kona, and can serve as a wick to bring new fans to 100 percent Kona coffee.".....
The farmers vehemently disagree. In fact we believe that having tasted an indifferent cup of coffee and
associating the name Kona with it will cause people never to buy the real Kona, why would they? They
haven't experienced anything special, yet they see the high price on real Kona.
We have many instances of people telling us this is so, but we have also assembled some independent
data.
Ken Davids, editor of Coffee Review, and one of the most revered ruppers in the world, told me in his
experience it would be very difficult to impossible for even an experienced copper to determine which of
two otherwise identical blends contained 10% Kona and which did not.
Ref.
*f. beds NOU 2 0200
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A year after the current 10% blend law passed, UH Manoa conducted a survey of Consumer Attitudes.
They concluded categorically that the use of a geographic name on a product that is not actually that
product is perceived as misleading, even if the label is legal. Overwhelmingly, consumers believe that
10% is too small an amount to justify the use of the descriptor Kona coffee in the product name. They
expressed concern that tourists will buy Kona Coffee Blends without carefully reading the label and will
find the coffee not distinctive, not worthy of a special price, and the brand image would be damaged.
Consumer Reports, the independent and renowned consumer reviewing organization did a taste test of
nine Kona coffees, and their review said "Kona coffees can be second-rate and. especially expensive, yet
most of the ones we tested are woody, bitter, sour, and astringent." When we looked at the names of the
coffees they had tested we found that three-quarters of them were Kona Blend, and labeled as Kona blend.
Yet the experts at Consumer Reports did not realize that Kona Blend meant that the coffee contained only
10% Kona and the other 90% an inferior coffee from an an-named source. If experts doing a reputable
review are deceived by the having the name Kona on blends, what chance has the average tourist got?
The State Legislature consigned your request for changes to the Blend Law to a two-year study which is
as yet unfunded and unstarted. In other words going nowhere. We do not need a study to know that there
is deception and damage to the Kona reputation.
Our good name is being reduced down to being equated with a commodity instead of a specialty, and the
price point will soon follow.
Hard as you work to support Hawaii's tourism industry, we ask our lawmakers to protect consumers from
being deceived about the brew they are sipping. And in doing so to to assist Kona coffee farmers. Please
vote for this resolution.
Sincerely
Christine Sheppard