The Kauai Coffee Estate consists of over four million coffee trees on 3,000 acres along the southern border of the Hawaiian island. Producing between one and two million pounds of green coffee annually, according to their website Kauai Coffee is the largest producer in the entire United States. But they may soon be closing down. A lease dispute has put the farm in danger of closing permanently at the end of March.
As reported by Kauai Now News, lease discussions began nearly two years ago but little ever materialized. Neither Kauai Coffee or Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA, the global coffee company that purchased the farm in 2011 (and also owns Maxwell House and Hills Bros.), own the land Kauai operates on. Since the ‘80s, they have leased the land from Alexander & Baldwin. Then in 2022, A&B sold over 18,000 acres to Colorado-based investment first Brue Baukol Capitol Partners for $74 million, which includes the Kauai Coffee farm land.
Speculation about the uncertain future for Kauai Coffee heated up in 2024, when the land it leased originally showed up for sale, the same timeframe where Brue Baukol states they were “engaging constructively and in good faith with Massimo Zanetti Beverage” over the lease, per a company spokesperson.
But barring from an eleventh hour save, the future of Kauai Coffee is all but determined. On March 31st of this year, the lease will expire and the company, along with its 141 employees, will have to close. What will happen after that is unknown.
Speaking in front of city council, Kauai Coffee senior advisor Wayne Katayama states that they are still actively working on finding a resolution but the reality of the situation is that they must also prepare for the alternative. Workers are unclear if/when they will be let go or if any sort of severance package will be offered. And what will become of the land is still pending. Brue Baukol states they would like it remain a coffee farm, but removing Kauai Coffee from it removes all the individuals with operational knowledge. The new owners, should the land sell, won’t be able to plug and play, to the detriment of the coffee farm itself.
Katayama tells city council that they are at least hoping to negotiate a larger transition timeline to potentially relocated Kauai Coffee. “The ideal situation would be an off-ramp of two years or more,” he states. “That would allow us to craft something that doesn’t devastate our employees or the community, and it will help us better transition.” Katayama hopes to also develop some sort of “asset purchase agreement.” Otherwise, any equipment they aren’t able to move themselves by the end of the lease would be considered abandoned and they would then lose.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
