Editorial: Protect Hawaii’s coffee industry

Hawaii-grown coffee carries the banner of the islands around the world, an elite product recognized by connoisseurs. Locally, it is a true success of diversified agriculture — Hawaii’s second-largest crop and a $50 million industry, according to state statistics. Yet small, family-owned farms remain key to the industry and its historic roots.

The Kona growing region may be most famed, but Kau is no slouch, and every island is now producing proudly labeled bagfuls of beans. In the U.S., only Hawaii and Puerto Rico are true players when it comes to commercial production of coffee, although farmers in San Diego are experimenting with the crop. Island coffee is really a made-in-Hawaii marvel.

But the industry has an enemy: the fungus Hemileia vastatrix, a nasty adversary that causes coffee leaf rust, a scourge that can decimate a farm. It’s a voracious thing that starts off as yellow spots on leaves and explodes into pustules covering the plant, eventually leaving trees bare. Yield drops, then the tree often dies.

When the disease sweeps through it can crush a coffee region, as even replanting is no guaranteed solution. Trees take years to bear enough coffee berries to be commercially viable, and there’s always a chance the fungus will carry through to the new generation.

Coffee leaf rust first emerged in Sri Lanka in the 19th century and has tainted growing regions all over the world. The first signs reached Hawaii last year, when it was found on Maui and the Big Island. The industry immediately went on high alert. “Coffee leaf rust has finally made its way to Hawaii, and it will take every available resource if Hawaii’s coffee industry is to survive,” Chris Manfredi, president of the Hawaii Coffee Association, said at the time.

Through 2021 the fungus has reached all the other islands, touching more than 90% of our 1,400 coffee farms. While the state’s coffee growers have fought off other pests, this fungus is considered the worst threat to date.

The situation is not without hope. Because the fungus came late to Hawaii, there are known methods for curbing the damage. In the short term, trimming trees and spraying fungicides can prevent spread; in the long term, strengthening the crop is a method that shows promise. The Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, for example, has been working to crossbreed local coffee trees with rust-resistant varieties.

Getting ahead of this problem will make all the difference, and it does seem that a proper focus is being placed on protecting the crop. Hawaii’s congressional delegation last month announced a $6 million federal grant aimed at fighting off coffee leaf rust. The nonprofit Synergistic Hawaii Agriculture Council will lead the four-year effort, to include breeding rust-resistant varieties, identifying fungicides or biological controls and genomic work on combating the fungus.

The industry is worth the investment. Even if you’re not a coffee drinker, you still may be a consumer, as island coffee is a prime gift, easy to ship or carry out of state. Even those who have no reason to buy island coffee do have reason to value the product. Much of the state’s cultural history is tied to coffee, especially on the Kona coast, where families generations back pioneered what at the time may have seemed a truly exotic, unlikely crop.

“If we want to save what I think is a unique experience, and that really goes back to the culture of our rural agriculture areas, we need to get (farmers) the help that they need,” Tyler Jones, director of research, Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, says. He makes a decisive point.

In the islands, coffee means way more than a flavorful jolt of caffeine.