News and Updates

In contrast to sugar production, Mahi Pono aims to transform agriculture on Maui by building a sustainable and diversified farming system that includes fruits and vegetables.  Last year, Mahi Pono delivered more than 6,000 watermelons and 2,000 pounds of onions to the market under the Maui Harvest brand.  Recently, limes and lemons have also begun appearing in stores across the Valley Isle and on neighbor islands. 

Five years have passed since Mahi Pono purchased 41,000 acres of former sugarcane land on Maui.  Mahi Pono now has 350 full-time employees, and has planted over 2 million trees.  Fil-Am Voice’s Assistant Editor, Alfredo G. Evangelista, talks with Mahi Pono COO, Shan Tsutsui, about the company’s progress so far.

Limes and lemons are now being packed for sale in Mahi Pono’s 117,000 square-foot packing facility.  Read about the packing operation in Melissa Tanji’s feature article in The Maui News.

Donations of nonperishable food, bottled water and hygiene products are being accepted from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday near a vacant unit at the mall at the Kane Street entrance. The new site is a partnership among the county, the state and Mahi Pono. Mahi Pono will provide staff for the facility and work under the leadership of Salvation Army and Feed My Sheep to coordinate food and supplies distribution. 

Jayson Watts, Mahi Pono's Director of External Affairs and Strategic Initiatives, is among three new members appointed to the State Agribusiness Development Corporation.

Mahi Pono is pleased to be a sponsor of the 2023 Maui AgFest & 4-H Livestock Fair happening at the War Memorial Special Events Field on Saturday, June 3, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This family fun celebration of local agriculture has a lot to offer including its signature events the Maui Legacy Farmers Pancake Breakfast, the Maui 4-H Livestock Show & Auction, and the Grand Taste. In addition, attendees can enjoy the Keiki Zone, Ag Education Tent, entertainment stage and program, Grown on Maui farmers market, big trucks and machinery on display, and many food booths/trucks to choose from.

Our seasonal onion harvest is underway, and we’ve partnered with Armstrong Produce, Kula Produce, and Sun Fresh Hawaii to distribute these onions to local retailers! Maui Harvest sweet onions will be available for sale at Tamura’s, Target, and ABC Stores beginning May 24, 2023.  Additional retailers will be online soon!  

Mahi Pono, a Maui farming company that owns and operates 41,000 acres in Central Maui, is pleased to announce its partnership with GoFarm Hawai‘i, an extension program of the University of Hawai‘i’s College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR). Mahi Pono will lease 15 acres of its West Maui agricultural land to GoFarm Hawai‘i for its successful statewide farmer-development training program aimed at increasing the state’s agricultural workforce.

Mahi Pono Chief Operating Officer Shan Tsutsui is among members named to the Search Advisory Committee as the search begins for a new dean of the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) at the University of Hawaii.

Mahi Pono’s row crop operation is looking forward to cultivating an estimated 2 million pounds of fresh local produce in 2023.  This produce will be distributed to restaurants, grocery stores, food hubs and local institutions statewide.  Mahi Pono’s Row Crop Farm Manager, Kyle Studer, will lead a team tasked with growing kale, lettuce, sweet onions, watermelon, and pumpkins, and we’ll chronicle their progress with a series of blog posts found here on the MahiPono.com website.  First up: Kale!

The 23rd annual Executive Vineyards event raised a record $65,000 for the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Shidler College of Business. Held at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel on March 9, a sold-out event of more than 600 guests enjoyed an evening of networking, sampling delicious items from local restaurants and tasting a variety of wines and spirits with the iconic Diamond Head and Waikīkī Beach in the backdrop.

Maui farming company Mahi Pono has named two recipients of its inaugural educational scholarship. Moani Tiare Atay and Nakoa Benjamin were awarded $3,000 each, which will support educational costs as they pursue an agriculture-related field of study in college.

Mahi Pono, a Maui-based farming company, has partnered with STEMworks Hawaiʻi to present the February 2022 STEMworks Solutions Challenge. The challenge is open to all Hawaiʻi high school and undergraduate college students, and winners will receive a paid summer internship with Mahi Pono and a $500 cash prize. The STEMworks Solutions Challenge is open for applications now, and the deadline to apply is Jan. 26, 2022.

Maui-based farming company, Mahi Pono, celebrated its milestone of planting 1 million trees within its Central Maui farm, Tuesday. The achievement comes in less than three years.

KAHULUI (HawaiiNewsNow) - A group of Hawaii senators flew to the Valley Isle and visited one of the state’s biggest farming companies on Wednesday to get more insight on how to boost locally-produced food.

The Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund, US Fish & Wildlife Service and Mahi Pono are working together to ensure the safety and protection of endangered hawksbill turtles, also known as honu ‘ea or ʻea, that nest along the shoreline in Mā‘alaea fronting North Kīhei Road. 

Mahi Pono packing shed crew members fill boxes with food for the Kaukau 4 Keiki Program Thursday morning. The Kaukau 4 Keiki program attempts to address the youth food access gap by providing students with a weekly box of food, delivered directly to students’ homes, for families who cannot access state Department of Education distribution sites.

Five chefs participating in the Hawai’i Food & Wine Festival attended the groundbreaking and blessing ceremony for a new project called Chef’s Corner earlier this week. Each chef gets a quarter-acre farm lot to say what they want grown on it. When the harvest is ready, they will get first choice to buy what is grown in their own farm lot. Farming will be done by Mahi Pono.

Wind. Drought. Pests. Farming in Central Maui already holds a unique set of challenges. Add a global pandemic and agriculture operations are tested in a whole new way. So Mahi Pono, the largest agriculture company on Maui, has made key changes to its operations in light of coronavirus.

Mahi Pono LLC has announced the promotion of Maui’s Shan Tsutsui to chief operating officer. Tsutsui succeeds Tim O’Laughlin who will be relocating to California to focus on new initiatives for both Mahi Pono and Pomona Farming.   

Mahi Pono donated $10,000 to Imua Family Services on Nov. 23, according to a news release. The funds were raised from Mahi Pono’s first annual Fall Harvest which included pumpkin sales on Oct. 24 at Yokouchi Family Estate. The drive-thru festival provided the Maui community with a safe, ohana-friendly way to celebrate Mahi Pono’s first fall harvest while supporting Imua Family Services and its community-based programs.

Mahi Pono has executed a long-term lease agreement with Maui Humane Society for a 3-acre parcel that will allow the nonprofit to expand its facility, the organizations announced Tuesday. The Mahi Pono-owned parcel is adjacent to the humane society’s Puunene facility and will be leased for $1 a year for 60 years, according to a news release.

Controversial permits allowed for 2021; long-term lease sought.

Today, Mahi Pono planted 300 native ulu and milo along with 30 mai‘a (banana trees) in recognition of the 2020 Hawaiʻi Statewide Tree Planting Day, in partnership with ReTree Hawai‘i.

Mahi Pono presents its first annual Fall Harvest on Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.  Organizers say this drive-through festival will provide the Maui community with a safe, ‘ohana-friendly way to celebrate Mahi Pono’s first fall harvest while recognizing the work of Imua Family Services.

Maui Cattle Company, a local business founded in 2002, hosts a third drive-up sale from 8 a.m. to noon on Friday, Sept. 11, 2020 at their facility located at 106 South Kāne Street (between Kahului Foodland and Sysco) in Kahului.

A dozen Maui high school students learn on the job while participating in Mahi Pono’s In the Fields paid summer internship program, which is a partnership with the Hawaii Agricultural Foundation. The program runs six to eight weeks and introduces students to everything from age-old farming techniques to the cutting edge as Mahi Pono transforms Maui’s sugar plantation monocrop model to one of diversified agriculture on a large scale.

The Maui Fire Department conducts a live fire wildland training exercise today from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. just south of Haleakalā Highway and west of Keahua Road. The training takes place on a parcel of Mahi Pono land and is an extension of the training conducted last month. Read article

Maui farming company – Mahi Pono – is partnering with the Hawaii Agricultural Foundation to offer local high school students paid internships.

Maui farming company Mahi Pono is supporting local restaurants by donating personal protective equipment (PPE) to restaurants listed on Food-A-Go-Go. With the support of Hawai‘i Agricultural Foundation (HAF), 37,500 masks will be distributed in a drive-thru event for registered Food-A-Go-Go restaurants... Read article

There have been a couple of food giveaways in the last couple of weeks. About 400 bags of food were distributed April 29 to Hana residents impacted by the coronavirus pandemic...

Mahi Pono, the farming venture that bought 41,000 acres of former sugar cane land on Maui from Alexander & Baldwin, said Thursday that it is now the majority partner of Maui Cattle Co...

Potato processing facility, community farm next.

December marked one-year since Mahi Pono was established to return active agriculture production to Central Maui.

Mahi Pono, LLC, on Maui delivered a shipping container full of Maui-grown potatoes to the Hawaiʻi Foodbank on Friday.

Officials offer details of approach to vital resource.

Officials offer details of approach to vital resource.

A hearing for closing arguments in the nearly two decades-long Hui o Nā Wai ʻEha contested case took place today before the State Water Commission.

Officials: Plan may create new chapter in ag history.

After a decades-long battle over public water rights in Central Maui, there’s finally an agreement over stream flows.

A Mahi Pono crew uses a pair of a gas-powered augers to dig the holes for papaya trees being planted Thursday. The crew was expected to plant 10,000 non-GMO solo papaya trees...

Mahi Pono, LLC on Maui will pre-harvest about 90 pounds of heirloom potato crops for the upcoming Hawaiʻi Food & Wine Festival, taking place this weekend on Maui. 

The East Maui Irrigation Company (EMI) has submitted a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a long-term, 30-year, water lease.

Mahi Pono is focusing on white, yellow and red potato types as their first crop of a progressive, multi-faceted farming development plan.

Company narrows list of crops to grow on old HC&S sugar fields.

Maui farmer Justin Texeira shares his career path and passions and his hopes for the role agriculture will play in Maui's future.

Two- to 10-acre parcels available.

The first crops Mahi Pono will plant in Maui include citrus, avocado, potatoes, coffee and more.

Mahi Pono has begun growing seedlings in a local nursery, and expects to begin planting them in the ground this coming fall.

The Mahi Pono Farm Team has begun land prep for summer, transforming the old sugar cane lands into environmentally conscious, Non-GMO crops.

MauiGrown Coffee's president, Kimo Falconer, will serve as an Advisor for Mahi Pono's community farming and coffee efforts.

Tiare Lawrence shares her intentions, goals, and challenges with Maui Time in her new role Community Relations Director at Mahi Pono.

Mahi Pono will offer community farm blocks to local farmers, provide access to equipment and save space for research.

Mahi Pono officials making rounds; details about who they are beginning to emerge.

Mahi Pono plans to invite local farmers  farm on their land, allowing them to rotate crops and use their equipment.

Mahi Pono appointed Shan Tsutsui, former Lieutenant Governor and State Senator, as their Senior Vice President of Operations.

Former lieutenant governor joins company, set to begin farming on 41,000 Maui acres, as new vice president.

Mahi Pono purchased 41,000 acres of farmland and plans on growing diversified, GMO free farms.

Former HC&S lands to be repurposed as diversified agriculture farms.