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Growth Patches

When Aloha airlines’ cargo shut down
at the end of March, many Maui farmers were scrambling to find alternatives to ship inter-island. While some resorted to Commodity Forwarder’s Superferry service to Oahu or Young Brothers, one farmer, Chauncy Monden, used the crisis to make a dream come true. “My wife Teena and I had wanted to open a fresh produce stand on Kula Highway for years,” says Monden, “and the shutdown gave us that push.”

 Now, what started as a crisis has turned into a marketing success for Kula Country Farms and other local farmers. Six months later, Kula Country Farms Produce Stand, across from Rice Park in Upcountry Maui, is overflowing with fresh vegetables and fruit. Kula Country Farms grows 50 percent of what is sold at the stand: seasonal corn, radish, flat beans, snap peas, daikon, blueberries and raspberries. But Monden is also giving local growers a venue to sell their produce. “We supplement our beans with Otani’s, and from Ono Farms in Hana, we get organic papayas, oranges, bananas and star fruit.”

Chauncy Monden and wife Teena of Kula Country Farms.
photo: ryan siphers

Says the fourth generation farmer, “Direct marketing is the way to go. Selling directly to the consumer, everybody gets a better price.”

That makes good economic sense for the state, he adds, as Hawaii continues to import 85 percent of its food, growing and buying local food products keeps money and jobs in Hawaii. Oahu gets 50 percent of what Kula Country Farms grows; 30 to 40 percent stays on Maui, and 10 percent goes to Kauai and the Big Island. “We can grow a lot of things here in Hawaii, and if we’re going to have sustainable farming, it starts with support of the local grower,” he says.

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