Dole Food Co. Ends Oahu Coffee Farming Operations Amid Aims to Sell Waialua Estate Farm – CoffeeTalk

Dole Food Co. is set to end its coffee farming operations on Oahu, ceasing to grow coffee and laying off nine employees effective November 30. This decision comes as the company aims to sell the 154-acre Waialua Estate farm, following its previous sale of a 151-acre cacao orchard. Dan Nellis, Dole’s general manager for Hawaii, stated that the company will refocus on its core pineapple farming business, which spans approximately 2,700 acres on Oahu’s North Shore.

Dole, a $9 billion company with over a century of operations in Hawaii, established its coffee and cacao farms in 1996 after the closure of Waialua Sugar Co. The cacao farm was sold to Lonohana Estate Chocolate for about $8 million. The coffee orchard has been for sale without an asking price for over a year, featuring around 167,000 coffee trees on 208 acres, alongside lychee and other fruit crops.

Historically, the coffee orchard’s annual yield was around 2,500 pounds of coffee cherry per acre, with potential yields reported at 4,000 pounds per acre. Dole last harvested coffee in the recent season, completing major pruning to enhance future yields. Earlier this year, Dole transferred the agricultural water system for the North Shore to the state, a move expected to cost $65 million in dam upgrades, making Dole and about 50 other farms customers of the state under the Agribusiness Development Corp.

In recent years, Dole has sold portions of its once-expansive Oahu farmland, previously used for pineapple and sugarcane, in response to the decline of these industries. Since 2013, it has listed approximately 20,000 acres for sale, with 5,000 acres sold by early 2017. Currently, CBRE has five more Dole parcels listed, totaling about 285 acres, while only 4,000 acres remain unsold from an initial 23,000-acre inventory intended for sale on Oahu.

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