Coffee farmers hope suit ensures your Kona is real
Whenever Suzanne Shriner left Hawaii to visit the U. S. mainland, she didn’t have to taste the Kona coffee sold at Costco, Walmart and other big- box stores to conclude it was fake.
She just looked at the price of the beans — significantly less per pound than it cost to produce on her farm on the Big Island.
“There’s a lot of money in counterfeiting, and it happens in every industry, but we’re not nameless, faceless corporations,” Ms. Shriner said. “We’re small farmers who are directly impacted by this.”
She and fellow growers believe that passing off cheap beans as Kona has depressed prices for the real stuff and damaged its reputation as a sweet, smooth, slightly nutty brew.
Ms. Shriner hopes those days will soon be over. She is one of more than 700 farmers now eligible to receive the first settlement payments in a federal, class- action lawsuit filed against 22 big- name retailers and suppliers.
The growers say the money — which, after attorney fees, works out to about $ 14,000 apiece — is less significant than commitments from 11 of the companies to abide by new rules about using the Kona name.
Blenders must say on their packages what portion of the beans are from the Kona belt — where rich volcanic soil, tropical sunshine, gentle breezes and jungle rain give them their distinctive flavor — and refrain from using the Kona label at all if that figure does not meet a minimum threshold set by Hawaiian law.
That threshold has long been 10%, but the state had no way of applying it to coffee sold outside of Hawaii. The hope of the growers
is that Kona will be regarded legally more like Champagne, which French vintners define as sparkling wine produced only in the region of the same name.
Roasted Kona beans fetch about $ 33 a pound when farmers sell them directly to consumers. They hope the settlement raises that price.
Some of the world’s ultrahighend coffees retail for more than a $ 100 a pound. Ms. Shriner, who runs Lions Gate Farms, said $ 40 a pound would provide Kona growers a fair living.
One question is whether consumers will pay more to support that price.
Over the years, growers have tried to get Hawaii’s law changed to boost the minimum content in Kona blends to 51%.
But as powerful blending companies applied pressure, bill after bill died in legislative committees.
“The tourists want to bring something home, and 10% Kona costs maybe 10 bucks and it says ‘ Kona’ on it, and nobody pays attention,” said Big Island farmer Richard Creagan, a former state lawmaker and House Agriculture chairman.
Until now, proving claims of false advertising has been difficult. The muscle behind the current suit — Corker et al v. Costco Wholesale Corp. et al — is a new lab technology that the five growers who filed the case in 2019 say can detect Kona’s telltale chemical signatures and expose counterfeits.
The defendants that reached settlements totaling $ 13.1 million include Costco and Boyer’s, Cameron’s and Copper Moon companies.
Costco will pay nothing, but the company’s hefty sales volume makes its agreement to abide by labeling guidelines worth a lot.
The holdouts include some big players: Amazon, Albertsons, T. J. Maxx, Kroger and Walmart. The case could still wind up before a jury if more settlements are not reached.