OHA is in the process of acquiring these assets of Makaweli Poi Company. - Photo: Courtesy of Makaweli Poi Mill

OHA plans for Makaweli poi production, kalo education

By Liza Simon | OHA Public Affairs Specialist

The West Side of Kaua'i is one of the few places where a poi mill operator is deemed “an essential worker.” Just ask anyone there who experienced the devastation of Hurricane 'Iniki in 1991. Up went green plastic tarps as jerry-rigged cover for lost roofs, but nothing so quick or handy could replace the blown-to-splinters Waimea Poi Mill, which served consumers with its famously sweet product, ground from the deep purple-colored taro or kalo, endemic to west Kaua'i. A resulting shortage of poi was one more lousy bump on the road to post-hurricane recovery.

This is when veteran West Side Kaua'i kalo farmer John A'ana stepped up to the poi-less plate, bought equipment from a Kalihi business, and in 1993 opened Makaweli Poi near the old Waimea mill.

Business has been good ever since for Makaweli Poi, but A'ana recently made the decision to sell it to Office of Hawaiian Affairs, mostly because in addition to running the mill and farming, he has a real “essential worker” day job — as a Kaua'i Fire Department captain. “I needed to free up more of my time, but I was cautious about selling to the right party, because I wanted to make sure operations would continue,” said A'ana.

OHA's purchase of Makaweli Poi for $185,000, approved in December by the OHA Board of Trustees, is intended to serve West Kaua'i as both an economic stimulus and an outdoor classroom. The agency is currently in the process of acquiring the assets of Makaweli Poi, which will become Hi'ipoi LLC, (although it may continue to do business under the current name). The venture also becomes the latest nonprofit subsidiary of OHA's limited liability company known as Hi'ilei Aloha, which OHA formed in 2007 as the parent company of Waimea Valley.

A'ana, who had considered other offers for Makaweli Poi and his 12-acre wetland kalo farm near the Waimea River, said that what cinched the deal with OHA was the way the agency folded in cultural and educational programs, as spearheaded by OHA Trustee Donald Cataluna, who began considering the poi mill venture in 2002.

“The Westside for me has been the most blighted side of Kaua'i ever since the hurricane. So I wanted to do something to bring light there,” Cataluna said. “Nothing has been formalized yet, but we envision programs for students in the lo'i patch, where they can just feel it,” he said, his voice full of enthusiasm.

A former CEO and manager of several Hawai'i agribusinesses, Cataluna also speaks from experience about the value of so-called outdoor classrooms; he taught classes in tropical agriculture at both Kaua'i Community College and Kaua'i Community Correctional Center.

Of the inmate students, he said most were of Hawaiian blood and were in prison as a result of drug abuse problems. “I taught them to grow vegetables for a garden for their kitchen, and I could see some of them coming around from making that connection (with the land) just a few hours a week,” said Cataluna. Of his college students, Cataluna said many would jump at the chance to “get back to the land” — including the lo'i patch.

Amid a persistent labor shortage on Kaua'i, employees who want to “get back to the land” will be needed because OHA's plan is to increase profits of the poi mill by doubling productivity. A'ana, who will be retained as a consultant, will help organize a kalo farmers' cooperative to increase crop supply to the mill, which currently operates only two days a week with a staff of nine.

Despite the part-time operation hours, the Makaweli Poi Mill makes a 12.5 percent profit on sales, said Trustee Cataluna, citing feasibility studies OHA conducted before the acquisition. “Now if we can double production and get a 25 percent rate of return, that's unheard of in any agricultural entity,” said Cataluna. “Plus, we will be supplying poi that is delicious,” he said, smiling. “For all the people on Ni'ihau, this is the poi they eat. OHA has an obligation to keep it going.”

Cultivation of kalo has a pan-Pacific history and also holds a place in the pantheon of indigenous Polynesian spiritual traditions. Harvests in Hawai'i have suffered recently from bad weather, invasive pests and urban development of farmland. A'ana said he has protected his crop by relying on knowledge passed on to him by his grandfather and uncle—veteran kalo cultivators, who started the kalo farm on family “kuleana land” in 1976 when A'ana was just 20 years old. A'ana said that planting taro is hard work. “But you just got to love it for what it is,” he says. “Back here in Waimea Valley I look up and see Kōke'e and off in the distance, there's Mokihana Ridge. It's beautiful.”