Maui Pine to focus
on fresh fruitKAHULUI >> Maui Pineapple Co. is planning to scale back on its production of canned pineapple to focus on growing fresh fruit and will stop planting the Champuka variety at Honolua next year. The company will shrink
its pineapple canning operationsAssociated Press
The company will also reduce its work force from 1,100 to 500 in the next four years, Maui Pine President Doug Schenk told employees last week.
"We will stay in the canned business," Schenk said on Monday.
The company is also trying new crops -- some in joint ventures -- including koa and forage grasses, and using other fields for other growers of fruits and vegetables.
Maui Pine has long said it needed to move away from its mostly unprofitable canned pineapple business in favor of fresh whole fruit and fresh processed products, which bring higher prices and profit margins.
While some of the Champuka variety is sold fresh, the company principally uses it for canning.
Some 3,000 acres of Maui Pine's 4,500 acres are productive at any one time.
"Pretty much, if not all, of the land will remain in agriculture in West Maui," says Schenk.
Pineapple takes more than a year to produce fruit and then provides at least one more harvest before losing productivity, so this year's West Maui plantings will continue to provide fruit for the cannery for about 2 1/2 years.
Some fields will be maintained to provide scenery and fruit for Maui Land & Pineapple Co.'s Kapalua resort.
Maui Pine will continue to plant Champuka on its East Maui fields, which vary from almost sea level to more than half a mile high, for the cannery and hybrid pineapples for fresh.
Two of the unprofitable sizes of packed fruit will be dropped.
The reduced output of canned pineapple will concentrate on institutional food service markets.
Although canning loses money, it does provide revenue and saves expenses.
Much of the canned pineapple goes to the federal government, either to the Department of Defense or to the Agriculture Department, but Schenk said the company still has a market for some private label customers on the West Coast.
Maui Pineapple Co.