The Office of Hawaiian Affairs recently completed the $185,000 purchase of Makaweli Poi Mill near Waimea, Kauai, after its board of directors approved buying the mill’s assets last December. The new, nonprofit entity is called Makaweli Poi LLC.

OHA does not plan to own and operate Makaweli Poi. Rather, it will provide financial and technical resources for a Waimea taro farmers’ cooperative. John Aana, former owner of the poi mill, stays on as a consultant of the new operation. “John wanted to make sure that the buyer was committed to carrying on production for the long term,” says Mark Glick, economic development director for OHA. “We were afraid that if we didn’t acquire Makaweli Poi Mill it would be hard to sell in the open market.”

Kauai is a leader in taro production, generating approximately 73 percent of the state’s output. In 2006, Kauai produced $1.82 million in crops, up 10 percent from the previous year. 

 But those numbers are slightly misleading. Taro production is actually on the decline. In 2006, Hawaii produced 4.5 million pounds of taro, down from 7 million pounds in 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The slowdown is a result of bad weather, scarce land and an invasive pest known as the apple snail. 

At the time of this writing, OHA was looking to hire an executive director to oversee the mill’s eight to 10 part-time workers. If all goes well, the Kauai facility will reach OHA’s goal, which is to double production to 150,000 pounds of taro by 2012.