Maui Pine workers
assigned new jobs

KAHULUI » Maui Pineapple Co. is continuing its shift away from canned product to the more profitable fresh fruit sales.

The company is sending out notices to its 334 cannery workers that nearly 149 positions will be cut early next year.

The same number of positions is being added to the company's fresh fruit processing plant at Haliimaile, but the work isn't the same.

"There's no getting around it," said Willie Kennison, Maui division director of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. "Some of the jobs are more strenuous."

More than 74 workers at the last pineapple cannery in the United States have been bused to Haliimaile to learn more about the work, Maui Pineapple President Brian Nishida said.

While the cannery is downsizing, the fresh fruit processing plant is being doubled in size and is likely expand further next year. Meanwhile, the company is looking to produce more pineapple, and has even canceled plans to close Honolua plantation.

Nishida said planted areas will increase by about a third, but he wouldn't say exactly how many acres would be under cultivation, because he didn't want to alert competitors.

The company has begun employing a whole range of techniques to help increase production, including earlier and heavier fertilizing and use of fertilizer in irrigation water.

Brad Fitkin, harvesting supervisor at Honolua, and his boss, Wes Nohara, initially doubted whether the techniques would drop time to harvest from 14 months to nine or 10 months. Both have changed their minds.

Fitkin said Field No. 4 at Mahinahina, one of the first fields to employ all the techniques, is going to yield a crop of more than 50 tons per acre, compared with the industry average of 46 tons.

Meanwhile, work is booming at Haliimaile, where Rudy Balala, the fresh fruit supervisor, said he often runs two shifts, processing at least a couple dozen bins of pineapple a day.

Each wooden bin holds 2.5 tons to 3 tons of fruit, which is packed upside down in the field to avoid bruising.

Part of the processing involves submerging the bins in a tank of lightly chlorinated water. The pineapples that float go to the fresh line; those that sink are sent to the cannery.

Nishida said the sinkers, which are ideal for canning, will eventually give Maui Pine an advantage over its Oahu competitors, Dole and Del Monte, because there is no longer a pineapple cannery on Oahu.