Dole's plans to grow a Waialua sweet onion have been set aside, he said, because yields just weren't high enough. The company also plans to make another 50 acres available for lease soon. Our intent is to keep our land in agriculture and stay involved. Only a handful of the cooperative's members aspire to commercial-scale businesses, Vana said. There is a waiting list for land, though, so growers have to be productive.
Priority is given to ex-sugar workers.
We want to find any of them who have fallen through the cracks, because there is opportunity. On Saturday, the Waialua Farmers Cooperative celebrates its successes and its hopes for the future with a Harvest Festival at the old Waialua Sugar Mill, now the site of the Waialua Coffee Visitor Center, on Kealohanui Street. The event commemorates the USDA's National Cooperative Month and the virtues of farmers pooling their resources to develop new crops and crop-care techniques. Visitors also may pick their own produce on the farms.