HILO — Last week, Hawaii County farmers exported 2,250 pounds of avocados.
They’re hoping more farmers will join them next season and boost that number.
Twenty years ago, fruit flies became invasive in Hawaii and exports were halted to protect mainland avocados. But the USDA gave permission in 2013 to resume exports.
The Sharwil avocado variety, it turned out, was one of the fruit fly’s least-favorite foods. And research showed Sharwils were safe to export if fruit fly prevention protocols were followed.
“The first year we got approved, nobody invested in putting up a packing plant,” said Tom Benton, an avocado grower and president of the Hawaii Avocado Association.
No avocados got exported that year — or the next.
The Food Basket, Hawaii Island’s food bank, had extra space in its Hanalo warehouse. And the organization wanted to get some of its funding from economic development projects instead of relying only on donations, which it continues to need.
That’s when the idea to develop an avocado packing/shipping plant at the warehouse was born.
The goal was to help farmers, create Big Island economic development, help Food Basket recipients and help the nonprofit.
Now, Big Island farmers can export to 38 states from the Food Basket’s plant. The delivery network the Food Basket already operated to deliver food donations to its distribution points delivers the avocados for export.
Benton said Hawaii County gave seed money to start the packing plant, while Food Bank volunteers invested sweat equity to build it.
“Last year … we did one shipment out of there,” Benton said. The first 1,000 pounds proved protections were ready for pest-free exports.
Last week marked this season’s fourth shipment.
Exports bring more dollars to the few farms currently participating.
“We’re definitely getting more, shipping to the mainland,” Benton said. “With supply and demand, prices for avocados will go up.”
Growers are counting on the Sharwil’s superior flavor and small seeds, with more flesh per fruit, to entice consumers. Once they get a taste, they’ll keep wanting more, Benton said.
Brooks Wakefield, a farmer and one of the directors of the association’s board, said county, state and federal agencies collaborated with the Food Basket and avocado growers to make exports possible again.
“We had to build a facility and we built it inside the Food Basket’s great big, gigantic warehouse,” she said.
Because the facility passed inspection, it also can be used for other types of produce. It’s screened to prevent entry of fruit flies and has a set of double doors that, like the screens, are required for fruit fly-free certification. Now, avocado harvest season — November to March — triggers weekly packing.
“The Food Basket has the manpower to box them up,” Wakefield said.
Avocados must be sized, graded and scanned for abnormalities.
Ones with blemishes get culled.
“We get all the culls,” said Food Basket Executive Director En Young. “So, those go into our food banking system.” The Food Basket also gets 24 cents per pound packed, from farmers, he said. That money helps fund Food Basket services.
It’s less than farmers would pay a commercial packager.
And, “we’re getting a much higher price selling it to the mainland than we do selling it locally,” Wakefield said. This year, she said, she and her husband are exporting as much as they can grow.
Farmers who ship from the Food Basket facility sign a compliance agreement and must pass a farm inspection.
“We want this to be really successful so that next year we have many more farmers,” Wakefield said. “It’s not that hard to get into compliance.”
Avocado farms average only about 5 acres, she said. Small farms can’t afford packing-plant construction. That’s why the Food Basket’s economic development effort has been so well-received.
Likewise, “the product is being super well-received on the mainland,” Benton said. “The prices are quite good.”
The “farm-gate price” — the net amount a farmer gets after marketing costs are subtracted — has been 80 cents per pound for avocados sold on the Big Island.
For exported avocados, “we’ve been getting $1.40,” Benton said.