KAPAA — While Times Supermarket president Bob Stout chatted with Norman and Mabel Hashisaka at the produce section of the Koloa Big Save, personnel on Oahu were busy loading a jet plane Wednesday.
“This is the story behind the story,” said Earl Kashiwagi, manager of Esaki’s Produce, a produce wholesaler, broker, and storage and handling (for produce) facility. “They needed produce for the grand reopening, but didn’t realize there was none.”
Kashiwagi said the connection was broken when a major carrier’s ship ran into a storm in the China Seas en route to Los Angeles.
The delay prompted Kashiwagi to move produce from Los Angeles departure to Oakland, something he’s done on many occasions.
“With the 40-foot containers of produce on the move, we got a call from Oakland saying there would be a delay because of mechanical breakdown,” Kashiwagi said. “Normally, that would not be a problem, but with only two major carriers servicing the Hawaiian Islands, you would not imagine mechanical breakdowns could plague two carriers at the same time.”
The impossible happened, and Kashiwagi was faced with a dilemma.
“The hotels need food, the cruise ships need food, the school children, and the grocery stores all need food,” Kashiwagi said, watching an Aloha Air Cargo operator move pallets from the jet cargo liner to his waiting trucks. “These are for Nuts O’ What, and the apples are for the school children.”
Under normal conditions, Kashiwagi said Hawaii gets two major arrivals, one on Sunday and one on Wednesday in Honolulu.
“The Sunday arrival connects to Kauai and we get delivery in time for stores to meet their advertising,” Kashiwagi said. “The Wednesday arrival is tricker. If you miss the connection, you wait until the following Tuesday.”
Faced with this dilema, Kashiwagi chartered air cargo planes — four of them at a cost of nearly $20,000 each — to get half of his weekly order to Kauai on a timely basis. The remaining half of the order will arrive Friday morning aboard a Young Brothers barge.
“We need to take care of Kauai,” Kashiwagi said. “If we take care of the island, it’ll take care of us. The hotels need food, the cruise ships need food, and the school children don’t understand how there is no food because of a storm and mechanical breakdowns. Medeiros Farms don’t do eggs, so where does it come from?”
Kashiwagi said Esaki’s will absorb the additional cost, the second time in recent history it was faced with such a massive airlift of perishable food.
He said Esaki’s Produce is fortunate people get excited when a situation takes place.
“We are lucky people can be competitors and still work together to help each other help others,” Kashiwagi said. “If one carrier breaks down, they suggest using the other. Between Honolulu and Kauai, people get excited and do what they need to do to make things work. We are very fortunate to be living and doing business here.”
