We spent the day helping out by lugging buckets of chemical fertilizer to sprinkle on the banana trees. The we got to spend awhile chatting with the head guy.
- Banana is a commodity crop with a low profit margin
- 40% of his work is contract work with Pioneer
- Kahuku Farm has an education component, kahukufarm.com
- Kahuku farmers earlier known for watermelons papaya banana year round harvest manage bulk pallets
- Income sources include Armstrong distributors, Foodland, and Don Quito for their Kahuku brand eggplant, banana, and papaya
- Need to spray 4 times a year to fight Papaya spiders/mites
- For banannas you need to wait 10 months for first bunch, usually not too good, next 5 bunches. good. Takes two years to recover cost. Land prep is expensive.
- With a good job pruning you can keep trees for 20 years
- 3-5 years typical harvest time
- After pruning, leave the green waste on the ground to keep moisture and weeds down, it'll break down eventually
- Look for niche crop that requires little volume and high price
- "Would you recommend farming to others" "I'm not going to encourage it, it has to be your own idea"
- Direct labor is highest overhead cost. Irrigation Ag rate .40 cents/1000 gallon. Hurricanes and viruses too.
- Papaya crop can be insured for $8 hour, but it actually cost $12/hour
- Farm over two acre needs a tractor
- Not everything will grow well with organic because of pests.