Local papaya-growers stand to benefit from a state-issued grant of $120,000 aimed at bolstering their numbers and production, in hopes of reopening the island’s fruit-disinfestation plant, according to state and local leaders. The fruit disinfestation facility has been out of
Local papaya-growers stand to benefit from a state-issued grant of $120,000 aimed at bolstering their numbers and production, in hopes of reopening the island’s fruit-disinfestation plant, according to state and local leaders.
The fruit disinfestation facility has been out of action for about five years, according to a county official.
Officials with the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) recently announced that Kauai Economic Opportunity (KEO) leaders will receive $120,000 through a grant-in-aid released this month by Gov. Linda Lingle, to operate a Horticulture Employment Training and Business Incubator on Kaua‘i.
Bill Spitz, economic-development specialist in the county Office of Economic Development (OED), estimated that Kaua‘i papaya industry loses about $3 million in potential annual export revenue because the fruit cannot be exported to the Mainland or other markets without first being certified to be free of fruit flies, something the disinfestation facility accomplished.
According to a press release from the OED, the state funding will allow KEO leaders to continue operating a Wailua farm, with a new focus on getting farmers into papaya production.
MaBel Fujiuchi, chief executive officer of KEO, said her staff is looking forward to the challenge.
“We’ve used these same grant funds in the past to help low-income residents on Kaua‘i improve their skills and gain self-sufficiency,” said Fujiuchi. “Helping residents and being a part of the re-generation of the papaya industry on Kaua‘i is very exciting.”
The executive director of DLIR’s Office of Community Service, Sam Aiona, said, “Because of the leadership of Mayor Bryan Baptiste and the community’s interest in getting the papaya de-infestation plant back up and running, we are pleased to support this effort to jump-start Kaua‘i’s papaya industry.”
Neither state nor county leaders gave any time frame for when the disinfestation plant might re-open.
Spitz said in an April interview that officials with both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and their Japanese counterparts require the disinfestation of the produce before it will be accepted in their markets.
Spitz said the disinfestation process raises the ambient temperature of the fruit to 117 degrees, and kills fruit fly larvae. Without it, the papaya cannot be exported.
Spitz said at the time his $3-million-loss estimate is a “ball-park figure.”
Aiona and Baptiste met in Honolulu earlier to discuss what funding might be available to assist officials with the University of Hawai‘i, Agribusiness Development Corporation and the Kauai Farm Bureau Development Corporation in their efforts to reopen the papaya-disinfestation plant in Ahukini.
They agreed that, while funding had been set aside by members of the state Legislature during the 2004 session for rehabilitation of the facility, there was still a need to ramp up papaya production in anticipation of the plant’s reopening.
Baptiste said he was pleased with the grant award.
“Reopening the papaya plant is very important to our agricultural industry. We’re working with the partners on all facets of the project to assist in any way that we can,” said the mayor.
The primary focus of those in DLIR’s Office of Community Service (OCS) is to assist Hawai‘i’s low-income, immigrant and refugee populations to eliminate barriers and become economically self-sufficient through numerous community-based programs and services. The OCS administrators oversee several grants-in-aid programs to help low-income residents throughout the state.
Kaua‘i papaya growers produced 40,000 pounds of papaya in May, a 20-percent decrease from the same time a year ago, though only 3,000 pounds were exported, all to other Hawaiian islands, according to statistics from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and state Department of Agriculture.
NASS officials reported that, as of March, the total acreage devoted to papaya growth on Kaua‘i had decreased from 50,000 acres in March 2004 to 35,000 acres for March, 2005.
Overall, according to NASS statistics, Hawai‘i fresh papaya utilization is estimated at 2.22 million pounds for May, down 11 percent and 10 percent from last month and a year ago, respectively.
Hawaiian papaya growers were expected to receive an estimated 44 cents per pound for the fruit in May, 5 percent more than last month, but 17 percent less than a year ago, according to NASS figures.
