Officials want stricter laws on the use of Hawaiian names on coffee

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HILO >> Big Island County Council resolution urges state lawmakers to restrict the use of Hawaiian place names on coffee packaging.

The resolution, passed unanimously last week, calls for legislation that would require at least 51% coffee blends to be grown in Hawaii to use local geographic names such as Kona in their labeling, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported Monday.

Currently, traders can use Hawaiian names for coffee, which only grew 10% of the beans in the named region.

Hawaiian coffee farmers testified at a meeting on Wednesday that using their regional names will limit profits and damage their brand.

Ten Percent “Blends make millions of dollars on the Hawaiian family coffee farms each year and that money is sent as surplus profit to the owners of … blenders on the mainland,” said Big Island coffee farmer Bruce Corker. “If consumers are misled that ‘Kona’ blends are (real) Kona coffee and they are disappointed with the taste of those blends, our traditional coffees … are permanently damaged,” said Corker.

Hundreds of Kona coffee farmers filed class action lawsuits against large coffee sellers in 2019 for false advertising of coffee blends.

Some of these companies have offered more than $ 13 million in preliminary settlements, the Tribune-Herald reported.

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