Ka`u News Briefs May 10, 2011

ML Macadamia reported a profit for the first quarter of 2011.

ML MACADAMIA ORCHARDS is enjoying the benefit of the recent rains, having gone from a loss in the first quarter last year to a profit this quarter. Last year the severe drought saw less than three inches of rain in the first quarter. The first three months of this year saw nine inches of rain in the Ka`u orchards around Pahala. According to the report from ML, revenues in the first quarter of 2011 were $2.5 million, comprised of $2.2 million from the sale of 3.0 million contract pounds of macadamia nuts and $320,000 in contract farming revenue. In comparison, revenues in the first quarter of 2010 were $2.4 million with $1.2 million from the sale of 1.6 million contract pounds and $1.2 million in contract farming revenue.
     The significant shift from farming revenue to nut sales in 2011 is due to the acquisition of the IASCO orchards, which ML now owns below Hwy 11 in Pahala. ML used to farm the land by contract. All of the Partnership’s production for 2011 will be sold to Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation with approximately 80 percent under fixed price contracts of 73 cents per pound (same as 2010) and the remaining 20 percent under the market-based contracts acquired from IASCO. The vast majority of the Partnership’s financial results will be determined by the third and fourth quarter harvest levels. Rainfall in the Ka`u region has improved over the past six months, but there is no guarantee that 2011 production will rebound to historical levels, according to the ML report.

TAXING TIME SHARE PROPERTIES at a different property tax rates than apartments, condominiums and hotel rooms is a way that some government officials are considering to help balance budgets. Maui County is already charging $14 for $1,000 of valuation for time shares. That is higher than the $8 for hotel properties and much higher than owner-occupied residences. Time shares are often owned by some 51 people for each unit, and they all share in paying the property taxes. Maui is the only local government in the country taxing time shares at a different rate, according the Pacific Business News, which is quoting the American Resort Development Association. Maui is thinking of raising the time share property tax rate to $15 per $1,000 valuation and hotel and resort properties to $9 per $1,000 valuation. The only time share properties in Ka`u are at Punalu`u Beach, and the Hawai`i County Council did not propose such a special tax this year.

LEADERS OF THE SPECIALTY COFFEE INDUSTRY are traveling to Ka`u, the state’s largest agricultural district, this weekend to learn about award-winning Ka`u Coffee. Representing three areas of the U.S. Mainland, they include specialty coffee guru George Howell, of Terroir Coffee in Action in Massachusetts; Skip Fay, of Dunn Bros. Coffee in Minneapolis; and James Freeman, of Blue Bottle Coffee in Oakland, California. 

George Howell shares his coffee expertise
at the Ka`u Coffee College this Sunday.

     The coffee experts are participating in Ka`u Coffee’s inaugural reverse trade mission as part of the third Ka`u Coffee Festival May 14-15 at the Pahala Community Center. They will learn first-hand about Ka`u Coffee during Saturday festival activities, including guided tastings and farm tours. On Sunday, the men will give guest lectures to local coffee farmers at the free Ka`u Coffee College. 

     A pioneer of the specialty coffee movement in the early 1970s, George Howell founded The Coffee Connection, a high-end coffee retailer that was acquired by Starbucks in 1994. He is an expert on single-origin coffee.
     Marshall “Skip” Fay is executive vice president of Dunn Bros. Coffee Franchising, Inc. He opened Dunn’s first franchised coffee house and roastery in 1994, and today there are 90 locations.
     Named one of the New York Times’ “Nifty 50,” James Freeman is on coffee’s radar for his Blue Bottle coffee company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Freeman’s network of coffee carts and cafes offers carefully made coffee drinks, and he is committed to selling beans less than 48 hours out of the roaster.”
     The reverse trade mission is sponsored by the state Department of Agriculture and the Ka`u Coffee Festival.

Melon-headed whales live in shallow water of Hawai`i Island.

JESSICA ASCHETTINO, a research associate with Cascadia Research Collective, shares information about melon-headed whales at After Dark in the Park, tonight at 7 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium. Normally considered an open-ocean species, these whales also live in shallow water off Hawai`i Island. 

KILOHANA DOMINGO demonstrates the intricate art of feather work on the lanai of Kilauea Visitor Center tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. His mother, Lehua, also shares her `anoni style of weaving pandanus leaves into hat designs. Park entrance fees apply.

HAWAI`I COUNTY TRANSIT DIRECTOR Tom Brown discusses the Hele-On bus system and other mass transit issues at Ocean View Community Center tomorrow at 7 p.m. The meeting is one of County Council member Brittany Smart’s District 6 Matters meetings.

STUDENTS AT VOLCANO SCHOOL of the Arts and Sciences present their ninth season of an Evening of Theater on Thursday. Curtain time is 6 p.m. at Kilauea Military Camp Theater. Sixth-grade students present the Nathan Hartswick comedy The Ever After, seventh-graders perform in the Robert Swift melodrama The Paper Bag Bandit Rides Again, and eighth-graders present The Beggar and the Wolf by Patrick Rainville Dorn.