Hawaii

Hawai‘i Farm Project Makes Key Leadership Appointments

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 17:51:40 GMT

Hawai’i Farm Project has named Julie Strong as director of finance and Edgar Cordero as general manager of Maui Gold Pineapple. Strong, a seasoned financial leader, will guide the organization’s fiscal strategy, the company said, while Cordero — formerly farm manager — will step into his new role to lead Maui Gold Pineapple’s farming, processing and sales operations.

“We’re excited to welcome Julie and Edgar into their new roles,” Hawai‘i Farm Project CEO John White said in a news release. “Their expertise will be instrumental as we strengthen our financial foundation and elevate our commitment to sustainable agritourism, ensuring the continued growth of our brands while honoring the communities we serve.”

Julie Strong, Director of Finance

In this newly created leadership role, Strong will oversee budgeting, forecasting, financial reporting and strategic planning across Hawai’i Farm Project’s family of brands. The company said her appointment reflects its growth and that her leadership will help ensure financial health and alignment with long-term strategic goals.

Strong has more than 15 years of experience in senior financial roles across nonprofit, corporate and manufacturing sectors. Most recently, she served as chief fiscal officer at Maui Economic Opportunity Inc., where she led financial operations across 50 grant-funded programs and played a role in supporting economic stability and empowerment on the island. She also held financial leadership roles at JFC Global, DB Schenker, Niece Equipment, and Reynolds Restoration Services, among others.

“To join an organization that not only celebrates Hawai’i’s agricultural heritage but is committed to building a more sustainable, community-centered future is a dream,” Strong said. “I look forward to working alongside this dedicated team to steward the company’s financial growth and long-term impact.”

Edgar Cordero, General Manager

With more than a decade of experience in farm management and agricultural operations, Cordero now leads Maui Gold Pineapple as general manager, guiding strategic growth, the company said. Cordero’s priorities include preserving the legacy of Maui-grown pineapples, optimizing efficiencies across the production process and sustaining Maui Gold’s commitment to quality and environmentally responsible practices.

Previously serving as farm manager for Maui Gold Pineapple, Cordero led core agronomic operations including land stewardship, planting, irrigation, integrated pest management, and harvesting. The company said he played a key role in its transition to a more data-driven era, helping implement digital systems to improve forecasting, track key performance metrics and drive profitability. Committed to continuous improvement, Cordero champions a culture of safety, regulatory compliance and sustainability, the company said.

Cordero’s background includes previous positions at Bayer Crop Science, where he served as farm operations lead and agronomic research specialist. He also contributes to the broader agricultural community as a board member of the Maui County Soil & Water Conservation District.

“Maui Gold has a long-standing reputation for excellence, and I’m honored to lead the team into its next chapter,” Cordero said. “My focus is on maintaining the highest standards in our operations while continuing to grow responsibly and sustainably.”

With this transition, former general manager Rudy Balala will take on a new role as a full-time pineapple tour guide with Maui Pineapple Tour, where he will continue sharing his deep knowledge with guests from around the world.

“We are thankful for Rudy’s many contributions and look forward to seeing him continue to inspire others through our tour experiences,” White said.

Few Consumers are Familiar with Papayas

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 18:00:14 GMT

Have you ever had a papaya? Do you even know what one looks like, let alone how to judge a ripe one? If not, don’t worry; you’re among the majority of Americans.

Every year, The Packer conducts its Fresh Trends survey of American consumers on their fresh produce purchase behavior. Fresh Trends 2025 asked consumers two questions about picking ripe fruit:

Do you feel comfortable selecting a ripe [fruit] for immediate consumption?
Do you know how to ripen [fruit] once you get them home?

Bananas were the most well-known with most survey respondents saying they were comfortable picking ready-to-eat fruit (72%) and knew how to ripen unripe fruit at home (63%). Other fruits were less well known to respondents.

Papayas were the most unknown fruit. Only 16% of survey respondents said they were comfortable picking a ripe, ready-to-eat papaya, and only 14% said they knew how to ripen an unripe papaya at home. These were the lowest response rates of all fruit surveyed by the ripeness questions.

A Hawaiian connection

For Eric Weinert, president of the Hawaii Papaya Industry Association, the results didn’t come as a surprise.

“I think even produce clerks and supermarkets don’t know how to select [a papaya] properly,” he said.

In Weinert’s experience, people who go looking for papaya at the grocery store had it first in Hawaii, the only state in the U.S. that grows the fruit.

“They have a relationship here,” he said of papaya consumers. “No one has introduced them to it in the mainland. They had it in Hawaii, and they liked it so much that they want to try it when they get home.”

The demographic differences in the 2025 Fresh Trends survey data support this, according to Weinert. Respondents living on the West Coast had the highest rate of reporting being comfortable picking a ripe, ready-to-eat papaya (19%) across geographic regions. Respondents with household incomes over $50,000 annually similarly reported being comfortable picking ripe papayas more than did lower-income respondents.

“That just tells me that those people are more likely to visit Hawaii,” Weinert concluded.

Picking a ripe papaya

Papayas range in color and ripeness from fully green and unripe (top/back) to fully yellow and ripe (bottom/front). However, color isn’t the only or best indicator of ripeness. Papayas can be ripe beginning at the color stage of the middle fruit if they is soft to the touch like an avocado.

(Photo courtesy of Hawaii Papaya Industry Association)

Weinert explained that picking a ripe papaya isn’t all that different from selecting other, more familiar fruit.

“This is the simple explanation: Just like a banana, a papaya tastes best when it’s not too green and it’s not too ripe,” he said.

Of course, nothing is simple when it comes to a fruit that has to travel almost the length of the U.S. before it gets from its orchards to the closest port in Southern California.

Weinert explained that the year-round production of papaya and the time it takes to ship them by boat to the mainland means the fruit are harvested at a variety of stages of ripeness. Even a fully green papaya will ripen in about a week if left on the counter in Hawaii’s ambient 82°F, he said. But if a green fruit has been chilled below 55° before it starts showing some color, it will never ripen properly. And many retailers will chill them, not aware of the best handling practices. This means customers might start out in a situation where picking a ripe papaya isn’t possible.

So, Weinert said consumers should also use avocado rules for selecting a papaya.

“Everybody knows how to eat an avocado; you can’t look at it and know if it’s ripe or not, but you squeeze it and you know. It gives a little bit to your finger,” he said. “The same is true for a papaya. Color is one indicator, but it’s really that little bit of give, that softness when you give it a gentle squeeze, that tells you if it’s ripe or not.”

He said when a papaya is about 50% yellow and soft, it is ripe and can be put into the refrigerator. It will continue to ripen and can be stored for several weeks.

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Hawaiian papayas get the bespoke shipping treatment

Tue, 27 May 2025 18:25:02 GMT

Papayas are a delicate fruit, according to Eric Weinert, president of the Hawaii Papaya Industry Association and owner of Hawaii Papaya Direct. But they are also unusual, especially the fruit from Hawaii.

“Most of the papaya in Hawaii is grown in the District of Puna on the Big Island, which is volcanically very new,” Weinert says. “The richness and nutrients of that new volcanic soil gives Hawaii’s papaya a unique and really good taste.”

Weinert says Hawaiian papayas are usually either the solo or rainbow varieties; smaller orange-fleshed fruits compared to the red-fleshed papaya of South America.

“Papaya is unique in that it fruits year-round,” he continues. “They have a couple of peaks and valleys, but there’s always fruit all year round in Hawaii. That makes it good from a marketing point of view so people can always have it in the stores.”

Getting Hawaiian papayas to stores outside of Hawaii is an undertaking. It is roughly 2,400 miles to reach the nearest mainland port in Southern California. Weinert explains that usually Hawaiian papayas are shipped by boat to ports along the West Coast and then trucked deeper inland. Papayas that consumers find in stores on the East Coast or the eastern half of the country are likely from South America.

To add to the complication, if temperatures fall below about 55 degrees, unripe papaya — those that haven’t started showing some yellow — won’t ripen properly. When each fruit bears the cost of transport to its customer, having an unsuccessful eating experience in the form of a fruit that won’t ripen is a problem, Weinert says.

Direct from source to consumer

Since most large retailers want unripe papayas — thinking that will give them the most amount of time to sell them — Hawaiian papaya growers and shippers often have a lot of almost-ripe and ripe fruit that is too ripe to ship by boat. Weinert says many of the papaya companies were throwing away these ripe fruits. That presented an opportunity.

Enter Hawaii Papaya Direct, a bespoke direct-to-consumer online venture.

“We FedEx these things two-day air, and we start with the ripe fruit. We never refrigerate them. We get them out of the field, pack them and ship them to a person, and they will end up with ripe fruit,” Weinert explains. “That online business has grown 50% year over year for the past three years.”

He says that he has shipped directly to consumers in every state, including the Big Island of Hawaii. Weinert says a lot of the business is people who give the five-fruit boxes as gifts. But there’s something interesting about the people who buy them, he notes.

“Almost everyone of those people — when they call and we talked to them — have a relationship with Hawaii in one way or another,” Weinert says. “There’s some kind of magical relationship with Hawaii.”

The business is individualized to the wants and needs of the customers. Weinert says he talks with customers regularly, and Hawaii Papaya Direct will pack to a customer’s specifications on ripeness to the extent possible. It doesn’t always work out, however, given the logistics challenges.

“Not every shipment is good. We put good fruit in a box, but once it leaves us, things can happen because it’s alive,” he says. “But our deal is we are committed to happy customers, so we make it right regardless of the cost. We want a happy customer.”

Dole welcomes visitors and locals to Dole pineapple farm on Oahu in Hawaii

Wed, 24 May 2023 18:40:28 GMT

Dole Food Co. Hawaii, part of Dole plc, has launched a hands-on, behind-the-scenes agricultural tour of the original Dole pineapple farm on Oahu in Hawaii.

For visitors and locals wanting an authentic, small-group, locally guided tour, it’s the only experience of its kind on Oahu, according to a news release.

“With the renewed interest in agriculture and food tourism, there has been a growing demand by locals and visitors to see, touch and taste an authentic slice of Hawaii,” Dan Nellis, general manager of Dole Food Co. Hawaii, said in the release. “We launched the Dole North Shore Pineapple Farm Tour to share our history and to give guests a chance to follow the pineapple-growing process from seed to fruit for the first time.”

The Dole North Shore Pineapple Farm Tour is a full-day, door-to-door experience starting with a morning pickup by semi-private shuttle at most hotels in Waikiki, the release said. Guests have exclusive access to the iconic Dole pineapple fields in Wahiawa to view the full production lifecycle of the world-famous Dole Royal Hawaiian Pineapple — from planting and harvesting to packing, according to the release. At the end of the tour, each guest receives a freshly harvested Dole Royal Hawaiian Pineapple. Additional stops at points of interest along the North Shore are included.

Operated by Go Tours Hawaii, the Dole North Shore Pineapple Farm Tour is offered on weekdays and certain holidays. Guests using the code “DOLE20” at the time of booking on the Dole North Shore Pineapple Farm Tour website can save 20% on ticket prices for a limited time, the release said.

For full tour details and to purchase tickets, go to DoleFruitHawaii.com .

Papayas shine as the taste of Hawaii

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 17:31:13 GMT

Hawaiian papayas are grown in paradise and shipped nearly everywhere from there.

Statistics from Hawaii’s agricultural statistics service indicate that production in 2023 totaled 9.54 million pounds, with production valued at nearly $6.5 million.

Besides shipments to the U.S., top export markets for U.S. papaya exports include Canada, Hong Kong and Japan, USDA numbers indicate.

Eric Weinert, president of the Hawaiian Papaya Industry Association, said in late August that the papayas grown in Hawaii are grown by about 100 growers and packed year-round.

Volume is somewhat lighter in the late summer, but the papaya trees are flowering and should produce good volume for the Christmas holiday, he said.

Most Hawaiian growers are small farmers with about 10 acres of papayas or less, supporting three packing houses, two of which send fruit to Japan and third that sends fruit to North America, Weinert said.

The lighter fruit volume in the summer works out well for growers, since there is considerable competition in the summer months from deciduous fruit, he said.

Hawaiian papaya production goes back for decades, with the solo papaya variety first introduced in the 1960s in the Puna district of the Big Island in Hawaii.

Weinert said Hawaii boasts the best tasting papaya in the world, in part owing to its porous volcanic soils. In contrast, papayas grown in Central America or Brazil on are grown on much denser soils. Hawaii’s soil and ideal growing conditions give its papayas a unique flavor that no other region in the world can duplicate, he said.

Overcoming challenges

The Hawaiian papaya industry went through a challenging time in the 1990s, when the papaya ring spot virus threatened production of the solo papaya variety.

Researchers at the University of Hawaii developed the genetically engineered Rainbow papaya variety, which was released commercially in 1998. The variety features a gene from the virus inserted into the papaya’s DNA, making it resistant to the virus.

The Rainbow has been a good performer for Hawaiian growers, Weinert said. Most growers in Hawaii now grow the orange-flesh Rainbow variety.

Papaya growers in the Caribbean and Brazil all grow red flesh; Weinert said that Hawaiian growers have been able to distinguish their product in the marketplace.

“I think the big challenge, of course, is just the location of Hawaii and the fact that we have to import all of our fertilizer and anything that we’re going to use on our crops,” he said. Then, when packers sell the fruit, much of it must be shipped long distances to the U.S., Canada and Japan, he said.

Weinert was instrumental in helping to grow the tropical fruit industry in Hawaii. In the 1990s, growers were looking to expand markets for rambutans, lychee and longan fruit. The growers needed a facility to treat fruit against the fruit fly infestation as a condition for shipping fruit to the U.S.

Because Hawaii produces papaya year-round and other tropical fruit was seasonal, papayas were critical to any effort to finance and build a vapor heat facility required for exports. Hawaii now has three vapor heat facilities to treat tropical fruit, including papayas, for export to the U.S.

In addition to being the president of the Hawaiian Papaya Industry Association, Weinert also runs a business called Hawaii Papaya Direct. The business ships premium Hawaiian papayas by two-day air freight to customers in North America, Weinert said.

“That business continues to grow and we’re up 60% year over year,” he said in late August. “I think people really, really love Hawaii papaya,” he said. “Many of our customers have a Hawaii connection, having lived here or have relatives from here. They first tasted papayas here and they love it.”

Many consumers love papayas for their health benefits, and the service now has several hundred subscribers receiving regular shipments, he said.

The fruit gets picked on a Sunday, packed on a Monday, shipped on a Tuesday and may get to consumers’ homes by Thursday.

“It’s very, very hard to find that kind of fresh picked Hawaii papaya any other way, and I think people are willing to pay for that,” he said.

Hawaii sharwil avocados arrive soon to Pacific Northwest

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:48:19 GMT

Sharwil avocados from Hawaii will be arriving to northern U.S. states and Canada in November, and the season continues to March.

After being prohibited for years because of concerns over fruit flies, the sharwil avocados were approved for shipment to northern tier states about three years ago, said David Cox, owner of Kane Plantation Avocados, Honaunau, Hawaii.

The variety is grown on the Big Island of Hawaii. Cox describes the sharwil as a greenskin fruit that doesn’t turn black when ripe, has a high oil content and is larger than the hass variety.
The variety was developed in Australia during the mid-1950s and it became the main commercial avocado grown in Hawaii in the early 1970s.

“We are allowed to ship from November to March just to the northern tier states,” Cox said.

The growing, harvesting and packing of the avocados are monitored for fruit flies, he said.

Local demand for fruit in Hawaii has suffered because of he decline in tourism, Cox said.

With tourism accounting for about 80% of the state’s economy, local demand for avocados has been diminished sharply by the closure of restaurants and hotels. That makes the U.S. and Canadian market more important than ever, Cox said. The state government will start opening up Hawaii for tourism about Oct. 15, with a requirement that visitors are required to have a COVID test within 72 hours of getting on a plane or have a two-week quarantine.

Mainland the main thing

Cox said Hawaii grower-shippers are focused on the U.S. market for the premium sharwil variety, which is well received by chefs and foodservice operators.

“We have a lot of good produce and people on the mainland still need to eat,” Cox said.

The variety is shipped by air to Seattle and other markets. Prices in Seattle are in the $70s for a 25-pound carton, compared to $25 per 25-pound carton prices for Mexican hass avocados recently, he said.

(The U.S. market) is a really big, big, deal for Hawaii farmers because it’s opened up our market to the mainland where we get much, much better prices than we can get locally,” he said.

Major markets for Kane Plantation are Seattle and Vancouver.

Kane Plantation is the only packinghouse certified to send to the U.S., and the firm sends both conventional and organic fruit. Expected shipments to the U.S. in 2020-21 si 100,000-120,000 pounds.

“It looks like we have a fairly good crop this year,” he said.

Because of the high expense of transporting inputs like fertilizer to Hawaii, Cox said many growers follow organic growing practices, even if they are not certified by the USDA.

The Packer’s Avocado Coverage

The Packer’s Hawaii Coverage

Federal contracts awarded to fresh produce firms

Fri, 13 Nov 2020 06:49:09 GMT

Multi-million dollar federal contracts have been awarded to three firms to provide fresh produce to military customers and select schools.

On Oct. 7, Senn Brothers Inc ., West Columbia, S.C. was awarded a five-year, maximum $225 million contract by the Defense Logistics Agency to supply fresh produce South Carlina military customers and select schools, according to a news release.

On Sept. 25, Segovia’s Distributing Inc ., El Paso, Texas, was a five-year, maximum $87.75 million contract by the Defense Logistics Agency to provide fresh produce to military customers and select schools in Texas and New Mexico.

On Sept. 23, Ham Produce and Seafood Inc., Honolulu, Hawaii, was given a three-year, $9.9 million contract by the Defense Logistics Agency to supply fresh produce customers in Hawaii.

Contracts awarded to Texas, New Jersey firms

Georgia firm wins big federal contract

Kalera to open up a vertical farm in Hawaii

Tue, 22 Dec 2020 15:05:32 GMT

Orlando, Fla.-based vertical farming company Kalera will open a facility in Honolulu, Hawaii in 2021.

Kalera’s Hawaiian location, according to a news release, will be the company’s eighth facility announced. The Hawaii facility will support about 60 jobs, according to the release.

“In addition to providing a bounty of fresh, affordable and delicious lettuces and microgreens to restaurants, cruise lines, resorts, hotels, and retailers, Kalera’s Honolulu location will increase food security and resilience on the island,” Daniel Malechuk, CEO for Kalera, said in the release. “With price inflation impacting almost all produce that reaches Hawaii due to prolonged shipping times, Kalera’s affordably priced products will increase access to a stable supply of healthy food for Hawaiian citizens and tourists.”

Kalera also has announced upcoming facilities in Atlanta , Houston, Denver, Seattle and Columbus and the completion of over $150 million in fundraising this year.

Kalera’s Honolulu facility will produce “millions of heads of lettuce” per year, according to the release.

Currently, 90% of Hawaii’s greens are currently grown on the mainland U.S. and shipped 2,500 miles to the islands, a journey that can take more than 10 days.

“The pandemic has really shown us how important sustainability is to Hawaii’s future,” David Ige, governor of Hawaii, said in the release. “Innovations like vertical farming help farmers be more productive while using less resources – especially water. That’s why it’s exciting that a company like Kalera is making an investment to bring their operations to Hawaii, where we are sensitive to reducing our impact on the environment.”

Hazel Tech launches food waste solution for Calavo Hawaiian papayas

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 05:58:48 GMT

Hazel Technologies Inc ., a USDA-supported technology company delivering new solutions for fresh produce to extend shelf-life, increase sales, and combat food waste, announces a partnership with Calavo Growers Inc., one of the leading grower-shippers of fresh Hawaiian papaya, tomato, and Hass avocado in the world.

Founded in 1924, Calavo is one of the most recognized brands in the fresh produce category. Originally an avocado grower’s cooperative in Southern California, Calavo has expanded to become one of the world’s largest fresh food producers with global operations. The initial collaboration between Hazel Tech and Calavo focuses on ensuring quality of fresh Hawaiian papaya.

Papayas have become more popular in the US in recent years with US consumption doubling in the past decade. Calavo is the largest grower/shipper of Hawaiian papaya in the United States. More than 75% of the papaya produced in Hawaii are marketed under the Calavo Gold® and Cole® brands. One major challenge limiting further growth is the short shelf-life of papaya. Calavo has partnered with Hazel® to ensure maximum papaya quality, unlock further expansion opportunities and reduce food waste to the fullest extent possible.

In trials, Calavo observed reduced decay and delayed ripening when implementing Hazel 100™ sachets into their supply chain. Calavo’s expectation is for improved arrival quality resulting in lower labor costs and less food waste. Calavo has decided to implement Hazel commercially with shipments of papayas sent by air and sea freight in an effort to meet these expectations.

“We were looking for an easy to integrate solution that would give us more time regardless of the harvest maturity.,” commented Brian Jameson, Vice President of Fresh Procurement, Calavo Growers Inc., “With Hazel 100™ sachets we’re able to reduce cull rate, waste and retain quality of our papayas which is a great benefit. We provide the freshest and most flavorful papayas Hawaii has to offer and by utilizing Hazel Tech we’ll be able to provide more premium quality fruit to valued customers, continue to support Hawaiian agriculture and ensure our supply chain is as efficient as possible.”

“Our trial with Calavo is a perfect example of how Hazel easily fits into the existing supply chain to protect quality, reduce waste and increase profits,” commented Pat Flynn, CMO, Hazel Technologies, “As we continue to work with Calavo, we look forward bringing easy-to-use solutions for longer lasting papayas, avocados and tomatoes to consumers across the globe.”

Hawaiian papaya growers overcome challenges, chart a future course

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 20:28:46 GMT

Sure, Hawaiian papayas had a comeback year in 2021. But the fruit has never gone away.

The output of Hawaiian papayas totaled 13.4 million pounds in 2021, up 62% from 2020 and the state’s highest output since 2017, the USDA reports.

Eric Weinert, president of the Hawaiian Papaya Industry Association , believes the state’s 100 or so commercial producers grow the best-tasting papaya in the world.

The year-round papaya crop, much of it grown on the lava soils of the Big Island of Hawaii in the Puna area, is consumed on the island, the U.S. mainland and also in export markets such as Canada and Japan. The 60% or so of the crop that is shipped to the U.S. mainland is treated with vapor heat to remove the threat of fruit flies.

“No matter where we go, they say Hawaiian papaya tastes the best,” Weinert said. In fact, at a recent trade show, he said some South American producers were boasting that their fruit was the “pride of Hawaii.”

“They stole their papaya seed from Hawaii,” he explained. “Even when people take our seed, it doesn’t taste as good as it does here.”

The porous, mineral-rich soils produce papaya trees that can bear fruit just one year after being planted. The trees soar up to 25 feet tall after just three years.

Besides promoting jaw-dropping growth of papaya trees, the rich and fertile lava soil gives the fruit its great flavor, Weinert said.

Commercial shipments of Hawaiian papaya are sold in 10-pound boxes, with sizes mostly ranging from 5 to 10 fruits per carton.

Weinert, who moved to Hawaii in 1979, said he also personally benefits from the bounty of the state.

“I am actually spending a lot of time just growing a lot of my own food here on the island right now; I’m having pineapple, banana and papaya for breakfast, and it’s all from my yard,” he said on a recent morning.

Previously, Weinert helped to start a tropical fruit nursery and build an electronic irradiator for starfruit and rambutan. He later ran Calavo’s papaya program in Hawaii, and retired from that position last year.

There are three large papaya shippers on the island, with Calavo being the biggest of those three.

Growers produce the biotech Rainbow variety in Hawaii. On the association’s website, the group said the genetically engineered Rainbow papaya saved the Hawaii papaya industry from near extinction in the 1990s.

That’s when the papaya ringspot virus, a plant virus, decimated papaya farms on Oahu and Hawaii Island, the website recalls.

Cornell scientists joined with University of Hawaii researchers and figured out a way to use the genetic portion of the virus to “inoculate” papayas against the disease.

With unanimous approval by the U.S. government, papaya farmers across the state began planting Rainbow papaya in 1998.

Without biotechnology, there would be very little — if any — papaya grown in Hawaii today, the group says.

“There’s a little gene that just blocks the expression of that virus, and that’s protected us,” Weinert said. “For 20 years, we’ve sold over a quarter of a billion pounds of papaya without a single health incident.”

Hawaii-grown Rainbow papayas have been distributed across the U.S. since 1998, Canada since 2003, and, most recently, to Japan, according to the group.

Weinert said the story with Hawaiian papayas now is the great taste and high nutritional value of the fruit, with chart-topping numbers for potassium and vitamins C and A.

“It always ranks in the top five of healthy fruits,” he said. Great taste and nutrition represent a powerful one-two punch for Hawaiian papaya, he said.

Supply chain challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic brought challenges for the state’s growers, however.

At the start of the pandemic, papaya growers who needed local labor to help with harvest couldn’t compete with government payments that allowed people not to work, Weinert said. Labor troubles have eased, but plenty of issues remain.

“The big challenge today is rising fuel costs and fertilizer costs,” he said, noting that growers generally must import all their inputs. Shrinking food budgets for people who have limited funds also is a worry.

A mix of air and boat transportation is used to transport Hawaiian papaya to the mainland, and Weinert said the pandemic interrupted some air deliveries. For example, FedEx cut the frequency of its service to the Big Island during the pandemic.

There are now probably more boat shipments than air shipments of papayas to the mainland from Hawaii, he said.

Weinert said he has started a business called Hawaii Papaya Direct that delivers 5-count cartons of papayas to individual consumers through FedEx air service for a cost of about $50 per carton.

With ocean shipments of Hawaiian fruit to the mainland taking about 10 days on the water, the lure of air shipments is freshness, Weinert said.

Papayas in a Hawaii Papaya Direct order can be picked Sunday, leave the state on Tuesday and be in a consumer’s home anywhere in the U.S. by Thursday, he said.

“We are able to actually take the ripest, most perfect fruit that would be too ripe to ship by boat and send it directly to consumers. For people who have tired papaya, they love it,” he said, noting that 60% of Hawaii Papaya Direct customers elect to subscribe and receive the fruit on a regular basis, varying from every week to every month.

Looking ahead, Weinert said the direct-to-consumer model may increase for Hawaiian papayas, as the pandemic has made more people comfortable in receiving food at their homes.

High-end retail demand also will continue. What’s more, Weinert noted that Costco is now stocking Hawaiian papaya in stores in Canada and Southern California.