Wailuku
Agribusiness ends
mac-nut operation;
70 jobs lost

A company official says
foreign 'dumping' of nuts is
helping to put Hawaii growers
out of business

By Mark Vieth
Special to the Star-Bulletin

WAILUKU -- Today is the final shift for 70 employees in Wailuku Agribusiness Co.'s macadamia nut operations.

Company President Avery Chumbley said a 52 percent drop in the market price for macadamia nuts, as well as other obstacles, prompted the firm to close its 1,500-acre orchard.

Kahului resident Joe Natividad, 44, has been working for the company for 25 years. He began as a field hand in sugar fields and leaves as a mechanic in the macadamia nut operation.

"I feel sad about it because too long service I have in there," he said. "Not only that, my co-workers, some are old and it will be hard for them to find jobs. I'm not worried about myself."

Natividad said Wailuku Agribusiness "means a lot" to him because he raised a family while working there, learned a trade and enjoyed working in agriculture.

"I'll miss working with the other people," he said.

Employees being laid off will receive a severance package. Chumbley said a "good portion" of the workers are retiring, while some others will be placed in new jobs at Wailuku Agribusiness.

He added the firm will work with the state, county and ILWU to try to find jobs for workers in other businesses and provide skills training.

"We will work to try to find employee placement for everyone," he said.

Chumbley said the closure not only represents a loss of jobs, but is another sign of the challenge of running an agricultural operation in Hawaii.

From 1988-98, Wailuku Agribusiness sold nuts to Hawaiian Host through a contract purchase agreement. Due primarily to the availability of cheaper nuts grown in Australia and Central America, Hawaiian Host decided not to renew the contract.

That cut Wailuku Agribusiness revenues by 25 percent in the 1998 crop year. Chumbley said heavy "dumping" of macadamia nuts by foreign growers also caused a decline in prices.

Factors that hurt productivity include severe storms early in the plantation's life; diseases, like one that causes trees to release nuts early in development; and the tropical nut boar pest, which ruins nuts.

Wailuku Agribusiness began with 128,982 trees on 1,329 acres. Today only 66,674 trees on 678 acres are healthy.

With the closure of the orchard, the firm ends 138 years of agricultural production.

Formerly known as Wailuku Sugar Co., the venture grew sugar cane in central Maui for 116 years before deciding to diversify and close its Wailuku Sugar Mill.

Macadamia nuts were planted on land between Iao and Waihee valleys, and pineapple in other areas.

Chumbly, a state senator from Maui, said the company is no longer a corporate farmer, but is "more of a landlord" for 23,000 acres of land it leases out for sugar and pineapple cultivation, and other activities.

"I'm very saddened," he said. "I hate to see the operation closing."