agricultural changes in Hawaii

[Dolphin]

( The area west of Pearl around Kunia is turning into seed tech row. We (Syngenta), Monsanto, and Pioneer have all purchased large tracts of land in that area in the past few years. Normally we rent/contract our land however this area is being swallowed up by development so purchasing is the only way to maintain the land base. If you take the Kunia exit and Kunia road to the north (mauka) there is corn all along the road. There are also quite a few acres just below H1 freeway that are owned by developers that we have on short term leases. A new rapid transit rail system is going to go through much of that area. Its a real shame as that is some of the best stuff in HI.

Most of what goes on in HI today is trait introgression. Adding traits to inbreds takes multiple backcrosses. HI is currently the place where this work is being done for most all companies. Seed development and Parent Seed production have been in HI since the mid-60's. Until recently, sugar and pineapple held control to most of the good land and it has been difficult for the seed industry to be able to expand. In the late 90's as sugar pulled out/went broke/etc, traits were coming to the corn seed business and the demand for land was growing. For Ag in HI, the seed industry is the real bright spot. Unfortunately the last sugar plantation on Kauai is closing by the end of the year. The only remaining sugar operation is on Maui. Pineapple on Maui is/has recently shut down. There isn't much left.

There are other places to do this type of work like Puerto Rico, Chile, Uruguay but there are challanges with skilled staff, gov regulations etc. The regulatory system in the US while it certainly isn't an easy system, is a stable & transparent system which, makes HI appealing. ) quoteNAT