C. Brewer entering
herb-extract business

A joint venture will convert a
Hamakua sugar warehouse to a
natural-medicine factory

By Mike Yuen
Star-Bulletin

What was once an old sugar warehouse at Hakalau on the Big Island's Hamakua coast will be turned into a factory for processing extracts from tropical crops such as ginger, kava and guava.

That, J.W.A. "Doc" Buyers says, could be the first step in establishing a new niche market -- herbal and natural medicines -- for Hawaii's diversified agriculture industry, which is replacing the state's sugar and pineapple industries.

"My dream is to make Hawaii the center for herbal medicine in the Pacific the way Germany is in Europe," said Buyers, chairman of C. Brewer & Co.

Yesterday, Buyers and Gov. Ben Cayetano announced that C. Brewer, one of the Hawaii's leading companies specializing in agribusiness and land development, has entered a joint venture with Capital Program Management of Moorestown, N.J., to produce "high-quality extracts" for natural products. The joint venture will be called Mauna Kea Nutraceuticals.

Since this field is highly competitive, C. Brewer Executive Vice President Kent Lucien declined to provide financial details except to say it is an investment of "several million dollars."

C. Brewer's Big Island facility will produce the raw materials that will be sold to firms that will manufacture the herbal and natural medicine pills.

The processing plant will be a 10,000-square-foot facility in which as many as 35 people will be employed, Buyers said.

It is to be operational by November. The plant will be built to meet the standards of the federal Food and Drug Administration, although the FDA doesn't regulate the herbal medicine industry.

Local farmers would provide the ginger, kava, guava, black and capsicum peppers and neem leaf that would be used to produce the extracts used in vitamins and other supplements. Buyers said that since large percentage of ginger and guava is not marketable for human consumption because of their appearance, these discards can now be sold for extracts.

The manufacturers who would purchase the extracts have not yet been identified, Buyers said. But he was confident that there will be a huge market for what the joint venture produces.

Chris Shallice, president of Mauna Kea Nutraceuticals, said the market for herbal medicines is growing at more than 20 percent a year.

"Our research," Buyers added, "shows the demand for natural health products is being fueled by the increasing numbers of baby boomers who want to control their health, prolong their active life and return to a more natural lifestyle."