Nearly 1 million pounds of coffee
get processed in a typical season
at Ka'ū Coffee Mill on the island of Hawaii.
But this warehouse is filled with nearly $1 million
worth of Ka'ū-grown coffee beans,
and they aren't going anywhere.
Lou Daniele: By this time
in a normal year,
that all would have been
milled down and sold.
But since the global demand
completely shut down,
I'm still hanging on to that.
Narrator: Although Hawaii accounts
for less than 1% of the global coffee production,
on average it brings in around $50 million a year.
But this year...
Leo Norberte: No more income. No more revenue.
Only expense.
That's why I'm losing a lot.
Daniele: It was gonna be our breakthrough year,
that's what we were calling it.
We could see it.
We could taste it. We could feel it.
And now that is just,
you know, all basically gone away.
Narrator: But coffee producers have no time to waste.
This year's harvesting season is well underway,
while millions of dollars' worth of last year's crop
sits in limbo.
Although Hawaii is primarily
known for its Kona Coffee,
the crop is grown on five
islands in eight regions,
and there are nearly 1,000 coffee farms
throughout the state.
Daniele: Coffee's always
been part of my life.
I think since I was about 8.
Narrator: That's Lou.
He's the general manager
of Ka'ū Coffee Mill.
Daniele: So, we have unique weather
and we have great soils down here.
We have very cool evenings, very warm days.
And what that does,
it puts a lot of sugars into our coffee.
Narrator: Before that coffee gets poured
into someone's cup, it gets harvested
from a coffee plant like this one.
Harvesting is a labor-intensive process
with a countdown once the coffee cherries ripen.
Daniele: We have to do something with it immediately.
It only last 24 hours.
Narrator: When coffee cherries ripen,
they are handpicked and loaded into 100-pound bags.
The majority of Lou's coffee cherries
go into what's called the washed process,
where they are converted into parchment.
Daniele: Basically entails going through a flotation tank.
From there, it's gonna get sucked up into the pulper.
That's where we remove the skin and the pulp.
From there, it goes into a demucilager.
Once it goes through the demucilager,
we have removed all that slimy pectin layer,
goes into another flotation tank.
And then it's gonna be transported
over to the drying deck.
When it comes out of that process,
comes out of the wet mill, it's 46% moisture.
You gotta dry that down to 9 to 12%.
Narrator: After drying in the open overnight,
the parchment is loaded into a mechanical dryer
for 24 hours.
Daniele: Then we can move it into our warehouse.
Narrator: Lou estimates that he has approximately
90,000 pounds of coffee parchment in his warehouse,
waiting for the final steps.
Daniele: We store it until we need to mill it
into green bean.
Narrator: When Lou is ready to convert
the parchment into green bean,
it heads to the dry mill.
Daniele: That dry-milling process does several things.
So, first, it's going to hull it.
It's going to polish it.
Then it goes into a classifier,
which pulls out all the different sizes.
Narrator: From there, the green bean
heads to the gravity table.
Beans that are too light because they are
overripe, underripe, or damaged by pests
float to the top and are discarded.
The rest of the top-grade product
continues on to the optical sorter,
which removes any remaining impurities.
Daniele: Coffee's one of those products
that any little defect is gonna throw off your cup.
Narrator: This is what will eventually get roasted
and become what we know as coffee.
In a normal season, Ka'ū Coffee Mill
will produce close to 160,000 pounds of green bean,
which gets sold to coffee shops and roasters
throughout the state and internationally.
Daniele: I was up 30% over last year.
And then the pandemic hit.
Narrator: The pandemic took hold
just as last year's harvest was ending in Ka'ū.
While farms in regions like Kona
wrapped up their harvest in late December,
the harvesting season in Ka'ū
runs through March and April.
Daniele: So, when this pandemic hit,
most of the Kona folks kind of had
gotten rid of their crop already,
where we were just starting to sell.
I generally sell most of my bulk product
in the first quarter of the year.
And by that time, things were already
shutting down across the globe.
And so that caused a lot of issues.
Narrator: Lou was also forced to close
the retail shop on March 19.
Daniele: I estimate that's roughly
a little over $600,000
in lost revenue that we've had
just because our visitor center has been shut down.
Narrator: To make matters worse,
this year's harvesting season has already begun
while they are still trying to sell off
last year's product.
And the longer that coffee sits in the warehouse,
the less valuable it becomes.
Daniele: As that coffee sits there,
that's now become old crop.
And so it gets devalued.
It's a huge blow to our bottom line.
Narrator: Although Ka'ū Coffee Mill grows
and harvests coffee from its 86 acres of fields,
it also buys coffee cherry from local farmers.
But now that demand for coffee has dropped,
Lou has been put in a difficult position.
Daniele: You know, I depend on these guys
to sell me coffee, and they depend on me to buy it,
so it's kind of this whole symbiotic relationship.
And, you know, when one part of that whole system
gets disrupted, it can be devastating
for the folks down the line.
Norberte: I don't know how longer I can survive
without help.
Narrator: That's Leo.
He owns a coffee farm just down the road
from Ka'ū Coffee Mill,
where he harvests about 250,000 pounds
of coffee cherry every year.
Norberte: The people that I supply,
they don't order coffee.
Because of the pandemic,
I lose about $20,000 every month.
And now we start harvesting again.
Narrator: For both Lou and Leo,
much of the drop in demand for Hawaiian coffee
can be attributed to one factor,
a dramatic decline in tourists.
Unlike countries in South and Central America,
which can produce coffee at a fraction of the cost
and ship their products around the world,
the Hawaiian coffee industry is dependent on tourism.
And visitor spending totaled nearly $18 billion in 2019.
But this summer was different.
Visitor arrivals to Hawaii in July 2020
fell by almost 98% compared with the same month last year.
Daniele: People come here specifically
because they've either heard about us
through family and friends,
or they've read about us,
or they follow us on our website.
Narrator: Like the retail shop at the mill,
many of the businesses Lou and Leo sell their coffee to
are dependent on tourists as well.
And as visitors to Hawaii dropped,
so did the stores' demand for coffee.
Nick Matichyn: Back in February, we were having
one of our best years ever.
And then all of a sudden, somebody opened a trapdoor,
and we've been in a free fall since then.
Narrator: Nick is the owner of one of those stores.
He started Maui Coffee
Roasters almost 40 years ago.
Matichyn: It was established for a need
to roast Kona coffee at that time.
From there, we just grew.
Narrator: Maui Coffee Roasters buys coffee
from farms throughout Hawaii,
which it then roasts and sells in-store
and to local grocery stores and cafés.
One of those farms it buys from is Ka'ū Coffee Mill.
Matichyn: We buy green coffee from them in 100-pound sacks.
In a normal season, we
would go anywhere from
50 to 100 bags.
And right now we're down to,
I think we've just got in 10 bags.
At first we said, "Well, I guess it's time
to close the business."
But after a couple meetings,
we decided we were gonna try to weather it out.
Narrator: Though coffee shops have resumed service,
tourists have not resumed traveling,
which means fewer sales for everyone.
Matichyn: You know, if we
don't make it by January,
we might not be here.
Daniele: An operation this size takes a lot of folks
to keep it running, and we need a certain amount of revenue
to keep this operation going.
Narrator: Unfortunately, Lou, Nick, and Leo
have not gotten much help from the state
or federal governments.
Although all three received PPP loans in the spring,
the operating costs of their businesses meant
that money didn't last long.
Matichyn: We blew through
that PPP money really quick.
You know, 'cause there wasn't that much.
Norberte: One time they gave me $10,000,
but I spent only one week, no more.
So I need some more help.
Narrator: And while coffee farmers were included
in the latest round
of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program,
getting help might not be as easy as it seems.
Daniele: Because of the requirements
and what they're asking of the farmers,
a lot of these folks aren't going to be able
to glean money from that program.
Nor are we, because of the way the wording is in that.
Narrator: For folks in Ka'ū,
their only hope of returning to normal operations
depends on tourists returning to the islands.
And, fortunately, visitors might soon be arriving.
Starting October 15, visitors who test negative
for COVID-19 within 72 hours of arriving in Hawaii
can avoid a two-week quarantine period.
Matichyn: It's created a whole new atmosphere here
just by the people that live here.
Everybody's got this hope.
Daniele: All I can say is that
Ka'ū is a very strong district.
The people are strong.
They have a long history of being fighters.
I know that tourism will eventually come back to Hawaii.
I don't think it's gonna be a quick rebound.
It's gonna be a slow recovery, but we will recover.