The Independent Voice
“Best Agricultural Newsletter in Hawaii”
Newsletter of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association
April 2025
PO Box 5436 Kailua Kona Hawaii 96745 USA
www.konacoffeefarmers.org info@konacoffeefarmers.org
Contents
Message from President Petersen
Hawaii Farmers Want Protections For Poi
Congressional Coffee Caucus
Hawai’i Ag Meets with DC Agencies
Surge in Green Coffee Thefts
Could Processing Innovation Be a Solution?
Mr. Takashiba by Peter Young
Why Brands Are Investing In Gen Z
First Indoor Coffee Farming Franchise Co-op
CSF Leading More Defects Research With UC Davis
$1 Million Raised for Biochar Production on Coffee Farms
Editor – Clare Wilson
MESSAGE FROM PRESIDENT PETERSEN
Aloha Coffee Farmers,
I hope you are receiving needed rain. Farm reports indicate abundant flowers on many
coffee trees, suggesting a promising year ahead.
The Board took a brief hiatus following the symposium due to members’ travel
schedules and spring break visitors. We canceled our March meeting due to a case of
laryngitis that I experienced. Our regular meetings will resume in April with a remote
Zoom session.
In other association news, our Vice President Suzanne Shriner was interviewed by
Bloomberg News regarding the business of Kona and Hawaiian coffee. Additionally, our
Congressional representative Jill Tokuda has initiated a coffee caucus aimed at
bolstering support for the American coffee industry through federal policy. We extend
our best wishes for her success in this endeavor.
Thank you for your continued support and dedication to the Kona Coffee Farmers
Association. I hope your management practices are progressing.
PURE KONA,
Mahalo nui loa!
______________________________
HAWAI’I FARMERS WANT PROTECTIONS FOR POI
https://www.civilbeat.org/
“France has Champagne. Italy has Parmigiano-Reggiano. Should Hawaiʻi claim poi?
Some farmers and poi producers think so, enough to lobby the state government to
protect the name, prevent offshore crops from being pounded with locally grown poi
products and stop foreign operations from co-opting the dish.
The Legislature is now weighing how best to safeguard local farmers and the culturally
important starch they produce by adding poi to an expanding list of foods and crops the
state has stepped in to help in recent years, māmaki tea and Kona coffee among
them…”
HAWAI’I REP JILL TOKUDA LAUNCHES A COFFEE CAUCUS IN DC
HAWAI’I AGRICULTURAL DELEGATION MEETS WITH DC AGENCIES
https://tinyurl.com/2ket398p
Last week, coffee and macadamia nut representatives joined a state delegation to
advocate for Hawaii agriculture with the new Administration. Three days of meetings
were held with USDA departments such as NRCS, ARS (which funds PBARC), FSA,
and a range of other agencies that are facing tough decisions on funding. Advocating
on behalf of our crops will hopefully bring awareness about the only state in the nation
that grows coffee.
CLIMATE CHANGE-DRIVEN PRICE HIKES CAUSE SURGE IN
GREEN COFFEE THEFT
https://coffeetalk.com/daily-
“The theft of truck loads of green coffee beans in the United States has surged as prices
for the beans reached all-time highs in the last year, according to transportation
companies. The U.S. is the world’s largest importer of the commodity, and since coffee
is only produced in warmer geographies, it has to import nearly 100% of what it uses
and transport millions of bags from ports to roasting plants, mostly via trucks.
Organized gangs disguise as transportation companies in the U.S. are in the market
trying to get small contracts from importers by offering better prices or immediate
availability of trucks. Importers should be careful about who they hire, as once they get
the coffee, they disappear. Each truck load has about 44,000 pounds (19,958 kg) of
green beans, which at current market value is worth around $180,000. Some market
participants believe the gangs then try to sell the beans to smaller roasters, which are
feeling the pain from sky-high prices.
Some importers have started attaching tracking devices to the coffee bags, in an effort
to protect their shipments..“
COULD PROCESSING INNOVATION BE A SOLUTION?
https://tinyurl.com/bp7jejyp
“Despite high coffee prices, producers are still facing an increasing number of
challenges. The rising cost of inputs, such as fertilisers, and labour fees means many
are unable to reinvest in their farms, leaving them vulnerable to climate change.
Unpredictable weather patterns threaten global coffee production as we know it.
According to a study published in December 2024, prolonged droughts and climbing
temperatures affect the flowering of coffee plants in Brazil, the world’s largest producer
and exporter of coffee, delaying or hastening the maturation of cherries.
These challenges force producers to find new ways to adapt, seeking to preserve
quality and yields to secure income. One possible solution is leveraging advanced
processing methods that help improve flavour and quality, especially with overripe
cherries typically discarded or sold as lower-quality coffee.
I spoke to Nick Mabey, co-founder and director of Assembly Coffee and Volcano Coffee
Works, Dr Fabiana Carvalho, a neuroscientist at the University of Campinas, and
Professor Lucas Louzada, Director of Operations and Quality Control, and Ana Luiza
Pellicer, co-owner and commercial director at Mió, to learn whether these methods are
scalable…”
MR.TAKASHIBA BY PETER YOUNG
https://konacoffeefarmers.org/
“…On one of those Kona trips, sixty years ago, we headed up mauka and our father got
us all out and said we were going to build a house here. It turns out we ended up
building on a different lot, up Donkey Mill Road, the first left after the dip. We planted
macadamia nuts on a 20-acre KSBE lease. Well, ‘we’ didn’t do the planting, it was all
arranged through Mr Takashiba.
Yoshitaka Takashiba was “the son of immigrants from Fukui-ken, Japan, was born on
May 23, 1913, in Captain Cook, Kona, Hawaii….”
WHY BRANDS ARE INVESTING IN GEN Z & ALPHA MARKETING
https://intelligence.coffee/
- “Gen Z’s $360 billion spending power has brands investing in youth-driven marketing
- Dutch Bros Coffee just appointed a Gen Z and Alpha specialist to its Board of Directors
- Coffee chains are borrowing from beauty’s playbook – TikTok trends, influencers,and viral hype
FOR years, marketing to younger consumers was the domain of upstart brands – those
willing to take risks with TikTok trends, influencer-led campaigns, and meme-driven
advertising.
Established companies, by contrast, relied on broad, conventional messaging designed
to appeal to multiple generations at once. That strategy is quickly falling out of fashion.
Now, some of the world’s biggest brands are restructuring their marketing teams,
budgets, and leadership to focus on Gen Z and Gen Alpha. The coffee industry is taking
inspiration from the beauty sector, which has mastered youth marketing through digital-
first strategies and social engagement…”
BIG GUNS COFFEE LAUNCHES FIRST INDOOR COFFEE FARM
FRANCHISE CO-OP IN KENTUCKY
“This is more than just growing coffee—it’s about creating opportunities,” said T. Shane
Johnson, Marine Corps Veteran and Founder of Big Guns Coffee. “We’re giving individuals a scalable, sustainable business model to grow
coffee in places no one ever thought possible. With the launch of our first franchise farm, we’re proving that the future of American coffee farming starts here”
https://tinyurl.com/2mb39tef
“TYRON, NC, USA – Big Guns Coffee is making history with the launch of its first-ever
Indoor Coffee Farm Franchise Co-Op in Kentucky, marking the beginning of a
nationwide movement to bring coffee farming closer to home. This groundbreaking
initiative empowers farmers, entrepreneurs, and investors to cultivate premium coffee
outside traditional growing regions using sustainable hydroponic farming methods.
Leading the charge in this transformative effort are Veteran Juan Ayala and his wife,
who have stepped forward as the first franchise owners, developing an indoor coffee
farm on their property in Kentucky. Their farm will set the stage for a new era of locally
grown, farm-to-cup coffee production, reducing dependence on imported beans while
supporting small-scale farmers across the country…”
CSF LEADING MORE DEFECTS RESEARCH WITH UC DAVIS
https://tinyurl.com/22jns298
The Specialty Coffee Association-supported Coffee Science Foundation (CSF) … announced the launch of a new research project in partnership with the UC Davis Coffee Center focused on green coffee defects. The announcement comes one month after the SCA and CSF announced a similar research initiative on green coffee defects with the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)
in Switzerland.
“We chose to partner with these two institutions independently because their projects are looking at coffees from different origins… “
“Coffee today is scored by exacting physical defect standards, but there is little understanding of how those standards were actually developed historically. For example, why are five chipped beans judged to be equivalent to one fully black bean? Why not four or six?” said William Ristenpart, director at the UC Davis Coffee Center,
said in the announcement of the UC Davis initiative.”…
$1 MILLION RAISED FOR BIOCHAR PRODUCTION ON COFFEE FARMS
https://tinyurl.com/2ry5v3cm
A Swiss-Colombian startup called Cotierra has raised US$1 million in pre-seed funding
to expand the development of its biochar solutions while promising to “decarbonize”
coffee supply chains.
From its offices in Zurich and Bogotá, the startup company plans to use the cash
injection to continue refining its high-efficiency biochar reactor technology while bringing
more biochar production to more coffee farms.
Biochar, a form of charcoal created through specialized burning of biomass such as
naturally derived coffee farm waste, has proven effective as a mineral-rich soil
amendment for coffee and other agricultural crops. It has shown positive results in
stabilizing soil health while also storing carbon for thousands of years.
The material can also increase yields and potentially increase coffee quality, as demonstrated by the pioneering work of former coffee-focused nonprofit Radio Lifeline.”
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