HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-07-15 Bruce Cornwell Support TestimonyFrom: Bruce Cornwell
To: Planning LPC Testimony
Subject: Permit application
Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2026 12:03:53 PM
Attachments:Letter_of_Support Bruce Cornwell.pdf
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Item #2 Kona Kai, LLC (PL-SPP-2025-000109)
2026-07-15 Bruce Cornwell Support Testimony
Info Given at LPC 7-16-26 Meeting
Aloha Commissioners,
For more than two decades I owned and operated Cornwell Co6ee and Kona Premium
Co6ee Company in Holualoa — a co6ee farm and full-service mill, roaster, and packaging
facility that bought and processed cherry for farming families, large and small, up and
down the Kona co6ee belt. By my own estimate, in the years I ran it, our mill handled
somewhere between 5-10% percent of Kona's co6ee crop in a season. I have spent the
better part of my life in this industry. When the time came to retire, Jason Eisert and Braiden
Pryor are the men I sold my life's work to.
I want the Commission to understand what has happened since, because it tells you who
the applicant is. Kona co6ee survives when somebody keeps the mill running, pays farmers
fairly and on time, and weighs every load of cherry that comes down the hill. Jason has
taken over the operation, kept it going, and kept faith with the same farming families I spent
my career alongside. They are still bringing in their co6ee, and I expect that to continue with
the next generation. Watching your legacy carried on — and the farmers you worked with all
those years still taken care of — is about the finest retirement gift a man can receive.
The application before you is that same commitment on his own farm: real co6ee, really
farmed, with the visitor income that lets a working agricultural property stay afloat –while
uplifting the Kona co6ee industry for everyone. I have watched too much good co6ee land
in Kona go quiet over the years. Jason is building it up instead.
I respectfully ask you to approve Special Permit Application PL-SPP-2025-000109.
With aloha,
Bruce Cornwell
Founder & Former Owner, Cornwell Co6ee / Kona Premium Co6ee Company
Holualoa, Hawaiʻi