Kona coffee labeling bills dead

There will be no changes this year to laws governing how Kona coffee and Kona blends are labeled.

A House bill requiring that the origins of coffee used in blends be listed on the package — plus a provision that coffee carrying the Kona label have at least 51 percent coffee from that region — never received a hearing.

A Senate bill was floated this session with similar legislation. A requirement that 80 percent of coffee sold as Kona be actual Kona was substantially altered in the Committee on Agriculture, chaired by Puna Sen. Russell Ruderman, who authored the bill. Even then the bill failed to receive a hearing in the Commerce and Consumer Protection and Ways and Means committees.

To even get the bill out of his own committee, Ruderman said he had to strip out the increase in the minimum amount of real Kona coffee and the provision requiring a detailed list of the places of origin of the beans. In the end, the failed S.B. 594 contained only a requirement that non-Kona coffee be identified on the label as “imported coffee,” with percent by weight information.

“In my opinion, I was the only one (on the committee) who has an understanding of the coffee growing industry,” Ruderman said.

Holualoa coffee farmer Bruce Corker said the 24-year battle for truth in labeling is not over. At issue is a law dating to 1991 that only requires blends to have 10 percent Kona coffee to qualify for the Kona label.

“We need to keep at it. Next year marks 25 years that Hawaii has been out of step with the rest of the nation in the labeling of its products,” said Corker, secretary for the board of directors of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association, which represents some 300 growers. More than 1,600 people signed a petition on the KCFA website supporting the legislation.

A half dozen members of the coffee association flew to Oahu to support the Senate bill at a late February hearing by the Committee on Agriculture, and a couple of others sat in via video conference, Corker said. But there also appeared to be significant opposition, including representatives of the hotel industry, he said.

“I think it’s a matter of lobbyists with financial interests having undue influence over the legislature,” Ruderman said.

Testimony from Scott Enright, chairman of the state Board of Agriculture, cited a 2006 study finding that blending Kona coffee with less expensive imported varieties helped expand demand by making the beverage more affordable. The bill was also opposed by the Hawaii Food Industry Association, which held that current labels already clearly state the percentage of local coffee in the package.

Hawaii County passed a resolution last October supporting the changes to labeling laws.

Ruderman plans to reintroduce legislation next year.

“There is no other region in the world that allows blending of their geographic brand,” Ruderman said.