Are the macadamia nut productions affected by the wildfires in Hawaii?
Also future tourism, and pineapples?
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Tourism on Maui is greatly affected for the next few months. It won’t be affected on the other islands.
Most macadamia nuts are grown on the Island of Hawaii (Big Island). They had fires too, but not as devastating and not in the area where mac nuts are grown.
Most pineapples are grown on Oahu.
Maui has some agriculture, and I’m sorry to say I don’t know if it’s affected. I will know as the time progresses if things become unavailable. I buy fresh salsa at Costco that comes from Maui. I pray the people who produce it are all safe.
Maui grows famous onions. I hope that’s unaffected.
This whole thing is so shocking. We are reeling. I asked my mail carrier yesterday if she had family there and was relieved to hear they’ve made it safely to Oahu to stay with family.
@Hawaii_Jake Do you know how much of the island was burned? Have they given a statistic like 50% of the island was affected by the fires, or anything like that? It’s heartbreaking what has happened there. Do they know what sparked the fire? I keep hearing that the winds spread the fire, but I haven’t heard what started it.
Beautiful Hawaii. :( The fire death toll, at 89, is the highest in the U.S. in a century. That shocks me.
To answer the question:
“Perhaps not surprisingly, Australia was the top exporter of macadamia nuts for many years as the original growing location for the tree, but as it began to be cultivated elsewhere, other countries’ production began to outpace the land Down Under. Australia remains in the top five countries that export macadamia nuts, per World’s Top Exports, but has fallen to South Africa. Other leading exporters are Guatemala, Hong Kong, and Zimbabwe.”
Who knew?!
@JLeslie As a part of the whole island, the fire affected a small percentage, but it affected the largest population center. There were also some fires “upcountry” on the slopes of Haleakala, where there are farms, but those were relatively small,
there was a 1,000 acre fire in Kaanapali in some open grasslands on Saturday but it was quickly contained and no buildings damaged.
As of last night’s news, the cause of the fire has not yet been determined and may take some time. There is speculation it was caused by power lines being blown down.
@Hawaii_Jake what about the island that Oracle owner Ellison owns? It’s 99% personally owned; did they have issues?
@zenvelo When I first heard about it I wondered if it was power lines or people using candles. I haven’t watched the news much in the last few weeks. What little I saw wasn’t talking about what started the fire.
During hurricanes people complain about the power going out, but the power company sometimes shuts down parts of the grid for safety, but then you get people trying to use generators and candles and deaths happen that way too.
I guess this storm didn’t carry much rain. So very sad how devastated parts of the island are and the death toll of course just heartbreaking. I just saw a young man on TV who was in the water for hours with his family and he said they might not have survived if they hadn’t been together.
@JLeslie I’m not sure how many acres were burned. It’s a section of the island. Half is inaccurate.
Lahaina was the second royal capital of Hawaii when Kamehameha II moved there from Kona. The first high school west of the Mississippi was founded there. The first newspaper also west of the Mississippi was published there. It has a long and treasured history. We are heartbroken.
@JLeslie There has been criticism already that the power grid was not shut down early in the process. This was a wind storm, not a rain storm, caused by a distant hurricane in the Pacific.
@zenvelo Thanks for your answers. I think it’s probably difficult to know when to cut the power. A balancing act of inconveniencing people proactively for safety. For some it’s more than just an inconvenience. They rely on electricity for health. I’m guessing a lot of the lines are above ground.
Were the predictions that the outer winds weren’t going to affect Maui? Were the residents prepared?
Since I live in a hurricane state I’m interested in what decisions were made.
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