There are about 650 farms cultivating coffee in the Kona district. The typical size of a Kona coffee farm is 3 acres. Kona coffee represents approximately 95% of the coffee produced on the island. There are about 3,500 acres of land utilized in Kona coffee farming, producing about 3.8 million pounds a year, valued at about $14 million.
There are working coffee farms and mills along the Kona coffee belt that open their farms to visitors. Plan a visit and you’ll meet farmers who have a story to tell, millers and roasters and Kona coffee pickers who pick each ripe cherry by hand.
Coffee in Hawaiʻi Historical Timeline
A timeline helps tell the story of important dates and events that shape history. Kona’s world famous coffee has a history that spans nearly 200 years.
1981
Only 1,600 acres of coffee remain grown by mostly small independent farms run by aging immigrant farmers and their families
1970
First Annual Kona Coffee Cultural Festival held.
1969
Kona schools conform to summer vacations with rest of Hawaiʻi schools
1960
American Factors and the Captain Cook Coffee Company close their mills. Sunset Coffee Co-op of Kona begins.
1959
Hawaiʻi Statehood. Twelve coffee mills had been established in the Kona District
1958
Kona coffee growers begin to establish their own mills; Pacific Coffee and Sunset Coffee Cooperatives are formed
1957
Kona coffee crop valued at $6.5 million
1950
Production of Kona coffee were at its highest at 22 million pounds of green bean produced annually
1940
World War II leads to higher prices for Kona coffee. U.S. government caps price. Jeeps replaced “Kona nightingales,” or donkeys for transporting coffee from farm to mill.
1936
10 struggling Kona coffee farmers signed a charter for a new credit union, the Kona Farmers Federal Credit Union
1932
Kona’s public school vacation schedule changes to August through November to align with coffee production.
1929
Beginning of the Great Depression. Kona coffee prices fall, farmers start to default on debt
1922
Only remaining coffee farms in Hawaiʻi were in the Kona District
1922
Only remaining coffee farms in Hawaiʻi were in the Kona District
1920’s
American Factors, known as AMFAC, roasted, packaged and marketed Mayflower Kona Coffee. First Filipinos arrive to work the coffee farms, picking coffee during the season and returning to the sugar fields in the spring
1915
Tenant farmers, mainly of Japanese descent, were cultivating Kona’s coffee
1914
World War I begins. The price of Kona coffee rises due to U.S. Army purchases
1910
About 80% of Kona’s coffee farms were family-run operations
1899
The first Japanese mill known as the “Kona Japanese Coffee Mill” was established
1898/1899
3 million coffee trees growing on over 6,000 acres, mostly in large plantations.
1892
Herman Widemann introduces a bean from Guatemala that became known as Kona typica or Kona Coffee
1880
Hawaiʻi’s first coffee mill was constructed by John Gaspar Machado near Kealakekua Bay
1873
At the World’s Fair in Vienna an award for excellence was given to Henry Nicholas Greenwell, a pioneering Kona coffee merchant who showcased Kona’s now famous coffee.
1853
Tobacco grown commercially in the Kona District
1841
Coffee plantations were established in the Kona District
1828
Reverend Samuel Ruggles, brought cuttings from Governor Boki’s land in Manoa to Napoopoo, South Kona.
1827
Wilkinson coffee plants matured and were ready to produce
1825/26
Wilkinson planted a small field of coffee on Governor Boki’s land in Manoa Valley on Oahu
1825
Traveling with King Kamehameha II and his wife Kamamalu, High Chief Boki, Royal Governor of Oahu visits England, names John Wilkinson, agriculturalist, to cultivate sugar and coffee on Boki’s land in Manoa Valley.
1825
Traveling with King Kamehameha II and his wife Kamamalu, High Chief Boki, Royal Governor of Oahu visits England, names John Wilkinson, agriculturalist, to cultivate sugar and coffee on Boki’s land in Manoa Valley.
1813
Don Paulo Marin, a Spanish physician, first planted coffee in an area behind Honolulu. Marin’s plantings were unsuccessful.