Kona coffee
Kona coffee
Industry is at risk
Greenwell Farms would like to thank Deborah Wielt for her letter published in the Letters section of the Oct. 14 edition of West Hawaii Today.
In her letter, she points out many challenges farmers face when deciding where to sell their coffee cherry. Her letter implies she and others she knows have been badly mistreated by purchasers of cherry.
Greenwell Farms considers its relationship with the many loyal and hard-working farmers who have stayed with us as our most important asset. We are mystified by why a mill would treat farmers as Deborah describes in her letter.
The developments in the coffee cherry market in Kona over the past several years have been very disturbing to those of us in the Kona coffee industry who have, through decades, fought for a stable market situation in Kona and quality standards that are enforced and maintained.
Two things have occurred over the past two seasons that have put our industry at incredible risk:
1. Coffee berry borer infestation has changed how we produce coffee in Kona.
2. More importantly, the lack of reaction to CBB by the coffee cherry purchasing community in Kona has created major disincentives for farmers to take effective action against CBB.
At Greenwell Farms, we have invested a great deal of time and expense to ensure every delivery is tested for CBB infestation.
We would like to invite Deborah to come to our facility, and we’ll demonstrate the sampling methods that are used to ensure representative samples and the testing procedures we have developed over the past two years.
CBB testing is extremely important:
Coffee with low CBB infestation rates needs to be separated from infected coffee to ensure higher grades of green bean are obtainable.
Farmers need to know how their efforts to control CBB are working and which sections of their farms need attention. Effective testing provides real verification to the farmer.
Farmers need to understand CBB infestation in coffee cherry greatly reduces the quality of the green bean produced.
It has been very frustrating to see mills in Kona purchasing coffee cherry at the highest prices regardless of CBB infestation.
CBB can be controlled. We are successfully doing it at Greenwell Farms and know a number of other farmers who are reporting successful CBB mitigation programs.
However, the industry as a whole will never succeed in controlling CBB as long as there are people buying coffee cherry and ignoring the CBB issue.
Thomas F. Greenwell,
President
Greenwell Farms Inc.
Kealakekua