Big Isle’s fight against coffee pest gets $1M in federal aid

Hawaii island coffee farmers are getting a $1 million boost from the federal government to help in their fight against the coffee berry borer, an invasive species that is "devastating" their operations.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is committing the funds for a comprehensive program to combat the pest, which was first spotted on the island in 2010.

"It is a major threat to the viability of our coffee industry," U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono said Thursday in a conference call with reporters.

"It will be the first major federal commitment with the expressed purpose of fighting the coffee borer," she added. "This is great news for Hawaii and our coffee industry."

The program requires no state matching funds, but comes on the heels of legislation signed recently by Gov. Neil Abercrombie appropriating $550,000 over the next two years to combat the coffee berry borer, a small beetle harmful to coffee crops worldwide which has infested crops in Kona.

"It’ll never go away, in my opinion," said Dave Bateman, owner of Heavenly Hawaiian Farms in Holualoa and a member of the Kona Coffee Council and coffee berry borer task force.

"It’s here forever, but it’s now just a matter of properly containing it and that’s what this money will go to — fighting it, containing it and trying to protect the industry from the devastating losses we’ve suffered in the last 3 1⁄2 years."

The program aims to work with state agriculture officials, farmers and the University of Hawaii to set up repellent and pesticide distribution and training programs, a plant sanitation program aimed at preventing the spread of the borer, and research programs into new types of pest controls and the genome of the species itself, Hirono said.

Hirono said she wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture earlier this year urging the agency to set up a Hawaii operation. The department agreed after working with Hawaii officials, farmers and the University of Hawaii.

"USDA shares your concerns about the agricultural and economic impacts of this noxious pest," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack wrote in a letter to Hirono.

Hirono added she is hopeful that as the program gets going, it will attract additional federal and state funds.

Hawaii island is home to more than 700 small coffee farms, according to Hirono’s office. In 2011, farmers produced more than 8 million pounds of coffee, valued at more than $30 million.

Chris Manfredi, government affairs chairman of the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation, said the industry has been working with local, state and federal officials in trying to obtain as many "tools" as necessary to fight the borer, noting the $1 million award is the largest to date.

"It appears to be a direct application to UH and the Hawaii Department of Agriculture," said Manfredi, who also is president of the Ka‘u Farm Bureau. "So I think it’ll have an immediate and lasting impact."