Isle agriculture evolves
under stress of imports

The poultry and milk industries suffer
losses, but fruit crops make encouraging
progress

The same week that one of Hawaii's last two commercial milk processors announced it was shutting down, the island's main processor of locally grown chickens started bringing in birds from the mainland, forcing the closure of the last two chicken farms on Oahu.

While the moves raised some concern about the ability of Hawaii's agriculture industry to compete against cheaper food imported from the mainland, at least one analyst said he doesn't think the closures are a sign of things to come.

"I don't think it's the same trend for agriculture in general," said Matthew Loke, administrator for the Agricultural Development Division of the state Department of Agriculture.

"If you follow chicken, how much do we produce anyway? Also milk, I don't think we produce that much compared to the mainland," he added. "I think it's pretty much adjustment within the overall industry."

The losses will hurt to some degree, Loke said, but Hawaii's agricultural industry shouldn't suffer as a whole because it remains very competitive in other products such as coffee, fruits, flowers, seeds and herbs.

"If you look at the net effect, it pretty much cancels out," he said.

Not everyone agrees, including Chin Lee, a professor of animal sciences at the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.

After Pacific Poultry Co. in Kalihi announced last week that it had stopped processing Hawaii-grown chickens the week before, Lee called Hawaii's situation "an agriculture crisis."

Pacific Poultry's announcement followed news that Foremost Dairies-Hawaii would close its Oahu milk processing plant in November. Five years ago, 80 percent of the milk consumed in Honolulu was from Hawaii dairy farms, but today that number is 50 percent.

"All our food is going to come from mainland imports," Lee said.

Loke noted that while the state has had to increase imports of some products, the industry has sought to reduce its imports of others.

For example, Loke said that in 2002 about 84 percent of the tomatoes consumed in the state were produced by local farmers, compared with just 26 percent in 1992.

The figures for other products were similar. The amount of bananas for local consumption rose to 70 percent in 2002 from 45 percent in 1992, while the amount of local watermelon consumed was 84 percent in 2002 compared with 67 percent a decade earlier, Loke said.

"We want to focus on things where we have a competitive advantage," he said. "But I'm sure there are other areas that we can work on to increase import replacement.

"I think the outlook is still good."