New Hawaii Coffee Labeling Law

Scams and Ripoffs
1

You may have seen my previous post about the ongoing fraud with Kona Coffee. I have an update regarding Kona and other coffees that use a Hawaiian place name.

Kona Coffee is grown only in a specific small area of the Big Island, so we knew roughly how many farms were producing it. Many farms were leaseholds and, as part of the lease, had to grow crops and report sales. We also filled out agricultural statistics that were forwarded to the USDA for national reports. Although farms could cheat and report more or fewer crops, we knew the square acreage of all the farms in North and South Kona. Even using Google Earth, we could count trees if we wanted to. Imagine our surprise when we calculated that the amount of coffee being sold as ‘Kona’ was ten times more than what could actually be grown in the region.

When I saw questionable coffee offers on eBay, I informed one of our neighbors, who was part of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association (we were among the founding members). His background as a lawyer helped. It wasn’t just coffee being fraudulently labeled; other products are now under scrutiny as well. Some products were obviously fake. This situation is similar to those selling US stamps online at prices far below face value. There would be no reason to sell something worth 50 cents for 10 cents. Similarly, we saw people selling Kona Coffee at prices so low they couldn’t cover the cost of processing in Hawaii, shipping to the mainland, and still making a profit.

A company discovered a way to test both unroasted and roasted coffee by examining its chemical composition to verify if it was grown in Kona. Certain minerals needed to be present in specific proportions. They found that many products claiming to be from Kona were not, and the results were clear.

Finally, the coffee farmers convinced legislators to make significant changes to the labeling laws. Currently, this is a state requirement because Hawaii was the only U.S. state commercially growing coffee, and the federal government wouldn’t make a ruling. However, with California starting to grow coffee commercially, I believe the Feds can now create laws regarding content and labeling.

The new law in Hawaii will require coffee to state if it contains foreign-grown beans and sets limits on what can be labeled with a regional name (like Kona, Kau, Kauai, Oahu, Maui, etc.).

Many farmers received thousands of dollars in compensation from the approximately $41 million lawsuit against several large companies that may or may not have known the product was falsely advertised. So yes, Clark, some people have received more than pennies on the dollar in class-action suits.

Although the suit was brought for Kona Coffee farmers, other products like Macadamia Nuts might also bring suit. I was once offered a gift of Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts (Mauna Loa is one of the Hawaiian volcanoes), and they sell them here in Hawaii. So why did this box say it was a “Product of Mexico”?

Anyway, here is the new law set to take effect in Hawaii:

2

I thought I’d read a post from you a few years back where Hawaii had passed legislation on using those labels on coffee.

Anyways, congratulations on this new legislation. What would be nice would be to require listing percentages of any/all included coffees.

3

The old labeling did not require identification of origin, just a simple percentage of Kona Coffee. The blenders pushed that through so they did not have to use all local coffee and could hide where it came from. One blender used 10% of the cheapest grade Kona (if he used Kona at all) and the 90% was coffee from overseas he bought for something lime $1 or 2 a pound delivered cost. Imagine how cheap that coffee was and that is one reason they flavored it to hide the low quality. That is similar to a restaurant selling a Kobe steak and dumping ketchup on it to serve it. One of the more expensive coffees at the time being covered in cheap coffee flvoring oils


1 Like
4

Thank you for a great article on Kona coffee.

I have always wanted to try Kona coffee but I have not done so simply because of all of the misrepresentation I have read about.

Do you have any recommendations for companies that sell 100%: coffee not blended?

5

I don’t know offhand who does K-Cups but you can look at the member directory at https://konacoffeefarmers.org/member-farms/

These are mostly farmers who grow and sell their own coffee from the Kona district of the Big Island.

In the search box I put in “K-Cup” just now and see one farm listed, Mongoose Mountain. There could be others who have not yet updated their info, but it is a start.

6

Thank you for the link. I will go to it this morning.

7

I have just finished my first cup of Kona coffee. It was GREAT. I purchased it from Mongoose Mountain, the only farm listed on your link that has k-cups.

I again want to thank you for your help.

8

Glad you enjoyed it. One day I hope to get back into coffee myself. At the moment I am a fruit farmer which is a lot less work.