KAPAA — A Kauai cattle company and livestock processor is expanding both its product selection and availability throughout Hawaii, a year after purchasing its Oahu USDA-inspected livestock harvest facility.
Kunoa manages a herd of 2,000 cattle across several thousand acres of former sugarcane land on Kauai and works with producers throughout the state to source pasture-raised, no-added hormone, antibiotic-free beef.
The company has surpassed a major $3 million equity financing milestone. It recently received $650,000 in equity financing from the nonprofit VoLo Foundation in Florida, which supports environmental, educational and global health initiatives, as well as $100,000 from a Kona-based investor.
“With this recent financing, we are launching product lines into several new channels to better serve the Hawaii marketplace,” said Kunoa co-founder Bobby Farias. “We’ve also completed major upgrades to enhance animal welfare and meat quality, and improve food safety since we purchased our Oahu facility.”
Kunoa offers an assortment of popular beef cuts including tenderloin, rib eye and brisket, as well as specialty items like beef tongue and marrow bones, at Times Supermarkets locations throughout Oahu and Maui. In April, Kunoa began selling Hawaii-grown ground beef at Times, its largest partnership with a Hawaii grocer.
Its beef jerky snack, Kunoa Beef Bars, are available at all Times, Safeway and 7-Eleven stores statewide.
Additional locations include Healthy Hut on Kauai, Kokua Market on Oahu, Mana Foods on Maui and The Locavore Store on the Island of Hawaii, among others. Beef bars can also be ordered online from Amazon.
To serve Hawaii restaurants, Kunoa has launched a distribution program with H&W Foodservice/Palama Meats on Oahu and Y. Hata on Kauai.
Kunoa has partnered with direct-to-consumer channels such as Oahu Fresh, a home delivery service; Forage Hawaii, an Oahu farmer’s market operator; and GoodEggs.com, a home delivery service in the San Francisco Bay Area.
