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Local farmer, UH seeking markets for exotic fruits
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from West Hawaii Today |
| Strawberry guava, bilimbi, lilikoi and other unusual fruits have been left to rot in Hawaii's tropical fruit market as popular bananas, papayas and mangos harvest the money. To help develop a market for unusual tropical fruits, Ken Love, owner of Love Family Farms in Captain Cook, entered into a contractual agreement with the University of Hawaii - Manoa College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR). "Many of these fruits have a great taste and value, but most people just don't know about them," Love said. The various tropical fruits, including jaboticaba, rambutan, starfruit and many others, are being grown at the Kona Research Station's Kainaliu and Captain Cook sites and are harvested by Love, who is developing marketing strategies for them. "Most of the fruits grown at the research stations in Hawaii just go to waste every year because nobody ever really uses them for commercial purposes," Dr. Kent Fleming, CTAHR Extension Economist and project leader, said. "This is a great opportunity to find out if we can develop a local market for them." Tropical and subtropical fruits grown at the research station's sites, such as sapote, hog plum, lychee and longan, have been used for variety collection and experimentation, UH Cooperative Extension Service Agent Virginia Easton Smith said. Finding potential markets for these unusual fruits will benefit farmers, Fleming said, adding no tropical fruit cultivars are now available. "If there were a market," Love said, "Kona's farmers could further diversify and strengthen their farming operations by selling these forgotten fruits - many of which grow easily across the islands." The project's two goals are to develop new markets and to measure yields, harvesting and marketing costs. "A lot of these fruits have sold well in a testing market in spite of perhaps being considered a little oddball or even ugly," Love said. "We just need to do some consumer education." Love will market the fruits by displaying them in supermarkets with informative literature, Fleming said, as well as processing them into such products as jams, syrups and sauces. "We have almost no production data on any of these fruits, so we don't know how much it might cost a farmer to grow and harvest them," Fleming said. The research station's farm manager and Love will weigh and record the harvested fruit to develop reliable estimates of marketable yields and harvest costs. UH's 30 percent share of revenue from sales will be used to help pay the Kona Research Station's overhead expenses, Fleming said. Similar agreements between local farmers and State Land Grant University Research Stations exist elsewhere, but this new arrangement is unique in Hawaii, Fleming said. The contract will be viewed in one year and may be modified or expanded to include other UH Research Stations. CTAHR provides information on growing, pruning, fertilizing tropical fruits, as well as pest control associated with each fruit, Easton Smith said. Information can also be attained through its Web site. A Fruit Growers meeting on Monday, sponsored by the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Association, will focus on pruning and post harvest care of tropical fruits at 7 p.m. at the UH Cooperative Extension Office in Kainaliu. |
| West Hawaii Today January 15, 2002 |
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