MONDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2018 WESTHAWAIITODAY.COM 75¢
KAILUA-KONA — The
arrival of a new player in
the Kona coffee game has
stirred more than milk and
sugar into the region’s proverbial
drink.
Kona Hills LLC — under
the umbrella of Kona Capital
Partners and Atlanta-based
Domain Capital Advisors,
which according to its website
manages more than
$4.1 billion in various
investments — is setting up
the largest farm in the Kona
coffee belt on roughly 1,900
acres of Kealakekua land.
The potential economic
and market implications
involving the introduction
of such a powerful entity on
such a large scale to what
some local coffee farmers
refer to as a “cottage industry”
has commanded attention
across the region.
But it’s the company’s
request of the Hawaii
Department of Agriculture
to grant an exemption to
the mandatory one-year
quarantine period regarding
1.5 million In-Vitro coffee
plants it plans to import
from Costa Rica over the
next two years that has
groups like the Kona Coffee
Farmers Association galvanized
in opposition.
Kona Hills has asked the
DOA to drop the one-year
mandatory quarantine to six
months.
Jonathan Ho, acting
manager of the DOA’s Plant
Quarantine Branch, said the
most significant concern
with importation on such a
massive scale, coupled with
the request for a truncated
quarantine period, is the
potential for introduction
of various pests or viruses,
which absent proper diligence
might be missed and
eventually spread.
“At this point, it’s really
(about) biosecurity,” said
Ken Love, executive director
of Hawaii Tropical Fruit
Growers. “There’s too many
examples of tissue culture
gone wrong.”
Mark McCormick, managing
member of Kona
Hills, said the request has
nothing to do with rushing
the company’s product to
market, as its first planned
harvest isn’t until late 2019.
“It really is to minimize
the required nursery space
dedicated to the seedlings
we’re requesting for import,”
he said. “There is no reason
other than just the physical
size of the nursery.”
Kona Hills will be
required to build its own
quarantine center on the
property, as there is no facility
in the state large enough
to house the number of
coffee plants the company
plans to develop.
At six months, plants
are typically large enough
to move out of the nursery
and take their places in the
field, making more room for
imports to follow and allowing
Kona Hills to dedicate
more of its land to growing
its crop.
The request process
The state rarely grants
quarantine exemptions
but there does exist some
precedent for the success of
requests like the one made
by Kona Hills.
“I’ve only seen it three
or four times,” Ho said of
requests for exemption to
agricultural products of any
kind. “And for coffee specifically,
that I know of, the only
one was done in 1990.”
Section 4-70-18 of Hawaii
Administrative Rules
Locally owned since 1979
PFI RUBBISH SeRvIce
808-329-3440
PFIRUBBISH.cOM
mandates that “coffee plants
or seeds for propagation …
be held in a strictly enforced
quarantine for a minimum
of one year, or longer if necessary,
in the judgment of
the PQB Chief.”
However, the Hawaii
Board of Agriculture does
have the authority under
section 4-70-6 of HAR to
A California company is
looking at Hawaii Island
as a potential site for
launching small satellites
into orbit.
And its CEO claims it
can do it without rockets.
“We use a concept
that allows for electricity
to be used, as opposed
to rocket propulsion in
order to achieve orbit,”
said Jonathan Yaney of
SpinLaunch Inc.
Yaney declined to
explain how the technology
is supposed to work
because the company is
pursuing patents and
he doesn’t want to tip
off competitors. But the
name does give a hint.
State Sen. Glenn Wakai,
D-Oahu, visited the company’s
office in Sunnyvale,
Calif., last October and
described the launch
mechanism under development
as a centrifuge.
He said he saw a “very
small scale version of it.”
“It’s like a big water
tank with an arm on the
end,” Wakai said. “The
arm is like the rocket. It
spins up to 5,000 miles
per hour and launches out
of a chute into space.”
While SpinLaunch
hasn’t put anything into
orbit, and the concept has
yet to be proven, Wakai
said he thinks it is “very
doable.”
He introduced a bill to
authorize $25 million in
special purpose revenue
bonds to help the company
set up a launch site on
the island. The bonds are
sold to private investors
who provide the funding
in exchange for tax-exempt
interest payments.
The legislation, which
has a companion bill in
the House, describes the
technology as an “electrically
powered, kinetic
launch system.” It says
it would reduce the cost
for accessing space and
use “abundant, infinite,
renewable energy
resources — solar energy
and regenerative braking
— to provide electrical
loading.”
On the economic side,
the bill says the facility
would generate millions
of dollars in construction
and create long-term
technical jobs.
Yaney said the satellites
would be about the size of
a microwave. Low-orbit
small satellites could be
used to provide internet
access anywhere in the
world.
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Featuring: Cambria Quartz
INSIDE
PERSECUTED
OR SELFCENTERED?
Trump stews
while nation
mourns
PAGE 3A
▼
THE LAST
RIDE OF
FREDDY RICE
Memorial
remembers
local legend
NHN, 5B
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HI 81 LO 69 WEATHER, PAGE 6A
VOL. 50, NO. 50 20 PAGES
Spin to win
SPINLAUNCH EXPLORING SITES FOR NEW SATELLITE LAUNCH METHOD
BY TOM CALLIS
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
CONTROVERSY BREWING
NEW, LARGE-SCALE OPERATION IN THE COFFEE BELT CREATES
LOCAL STIR AROUND BIOSECURITY, KONA BRAND
BY MAX DIBLE
WEST HAWAII TODAY
mdible@westhawaiitoday.com
SEE SPINLAUNCH PAGE 5A
Kona Hills LLC is developing a coffee farm of
unprecedented scale in the Kona Coffee Belt.
COURTESY PHOTO/KONA HILLS LLC
The height and the stark white
trunk of an albizia tree make it
stand out among the other trees
Thursday along the Puainako
Extension in Hilo. HOLLYN JOHNSON/
TRIBUNE-HERALD
Albizia culling
in East Hawaii
BY MICHAEL BRESTOVANSKY
HAWAII TRIBUNE-HERALD
The Hawaii Island Albizia Task Force
announced it will carry out a series of
albizia control projects costing $1 million
within the next several weeks on
the east side of the Big Island.
The task force — which includes representatives
from the Big Island Invasive
Species Committee, state Department
of Transportation, Hawaii County Civil
Defense, Hawaii Electric Light Co., U.S.
Forest Service and other organizations
— has four projects planned for East
Hawaii.
Springer Kaye, manager at the Big
Island Invasive Species Committee,
said the first project is nearly complete.
That project, which will cost more than
$200,000, involves clearing all albizia
within 100 meters of a 1-mile stretch
of the Puainako Extension, where
SEE ALBIZIA PAGE 7A SEE COFFEE PAGE 6A
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