KAILUA-KONA — Coffee lovers, vendors and educators alike gathered Friday for the Kona Coffee Farmers Association’s annual Kona Coffee and Small Farm Expo.
The Old Kona Airport Park Makaeo Events Pavilion’s plethora of booths featured comprehensive resources and product information, from how to handle fire ants to displays of coffee packaging products. There were also breakout sessions discussing topics like coffee cupping and root-knot nematode, keynote speakers, giveaways, blind coffee tasting and more.
Now in its 11th year, the free event attracted dozens from all over the island and the mainland.
David Hart, representing Ashe, a coffee roaster production company, traveled from Southern California to attend this year’s expo.
“We’ve got a lot of customers in Kona so we started doing the expo,” he said. “We try to sell something, that’s the main reason to come.”
Meagan McElya, representative of AgriLogic in College Station, Texas, attended the event to educate farmers on crop insurance and risk management. “We have a partnership grant with the USDA to conduct free education,” she said.
“We get to know the (local farmers at the expo) a little bit better. How long have you been producing? What do you produce? We’ve had good participation this morning,” McElya added.
People on the opposite side of the booths came to the event for a wide array of reasons. Attendees included both experienced coffee farmers and novices.
“We’re brand new here on the island and we want to find out more about coffee,” said Flo Monni of Lava Flow Coffee. “My husband and I are trying to do most of the work on our own and it’s overwhelming. Just looking for experts and ideas.”
Experts and ideas were aplenty according to Tori Perrizo, who grew up on a coffee farm in Kona. She left for school on the mainland for years, and is now back on the island considering a return to coffee farming.
“Because I’ve been away for so far and so long, the industry’s kind of shifted since I was a kid,” Perrizo said. “So, I’m using it as a tool to get familiar with new laws, rules, regulations, trends, and things like that. Everyone has been really helpful being open and sharing their information.”
Tourists even journeyed from the mainland to the annual Kailua-Kona expo, all for the love of one of the Big Island’s biggest products.
“We’ve been coming to (the coffee expo) every other year for a long time now, because we like coffee,” Colorado resident Verla Gocklay said.