Editorial: Sad farewell for Oahu’s Meadow Gold workers

For Hawaii residents of a certain age, Lani Moo was the iconic mascot for local milk company Meadow Gold. Even after Lani ceased appearing in coloring books and ads, the Meadow Gold logo stayed strong on supermarket shelves and atop its longtime facility in Keeaumoku. No more, it seems.

This week, news came that the flagship plant will close permanently at month’s end, ending Oahu operations of the 100-year-old milk and dairy brand.

That’s especially disheartening given that less than two weeks ago, hopes ran high that Meadow Gold Hawaii — including its 216 employees at the Oahu site — would survive bankruptcy proceedings of its parent company, Texas-based Dean Foods Co. But an April 6 court-approved sale of the Oahu operation — to Los Angeles-based Industrial Realty and to be run by Hawaii company 8 Cow Dairies — has now evaporated.

What’s left: An unnamed buyer to continue operating Meadow Gold’s processing facility in Hilo and distribution operations on Hawaii island, Maui and Kauai. The good news is that these 71 employees would still have jobs.

The bad, of course, is the 216 workers hit by the Oahu closure, in these dire times of coronavirus-induced shutdown, which has already thrown more than 244,000 residents out of work since March 1. It’s another blow to workers in an already tough time.

Decades ago, Hawaii had 160 dairies, but milk-processing has been a brutal industry. Steadily atrophying over the years, it’s now struggling against coronavirus shutdowns nationwide.

Just last week, the International Dairy Foods Association and National Milk Producers Federation urged the U.S. Department of Agriculture to take swift action to support the U.S. dairy industry through the COVID-19 crisis. The industry concerns were stark: Nationwide, supply of dairy was exceeding demand by at least 10% — a gap feared to widen as “shelter in place” conditions endured. As a result, producers and cooperatives are starting to “dump” significant quantities of milk, and dairy commodity market prices are collapsing.

Certainly, the forced closures of schools and restaurants due to shutdowns such as in Hawaii, have cratered the normal demand pipelines.

Dean Foods said Meadow Gold products should continue to be seen in stores and outlets. But the pending deal for its neighbor-island operations is predicted for an early-May completion — and as has already been seen, a lot of curdling can happen in two weeks.