State Senator Josh Green (D-Kona) has introduced the Coffee Origin Disclosure Bill. The Kona Coffee Farmers Association says the bill is designed to provide a step forward toward truth-in-labeling. The bill would require disclosure of the origin of all the coffee in the bag. For labels on packages containing, for example, 10% Kona coffee the measure would require disclosure of the origin of the 90% not grown in Kona.
As an illustration, labels would be required to include disclosures such as “Contains: 90% Panamanian Coffee, 10% Kona Coffee.”
Under current law such packages are only required to put “10% Kona Blend” in small print at the bottom of the label; there is no requirement to disclose the origin of the 90%, nor is there a requirement to explicitly indicate that there is, in fact, non-Kona grown coffee in the package.
When the original bill leading to the “10% blend” coffee labeling law was introduced by in 1991, there was a provision mandating disclosure of the origin of all coffee in a blend. However, the Kona Coffee Farmers Association maintains that pressure on the Legislature from the Honolulu coffee blenders resulted in changing this disclosure requirement from “mandatory” to “voluntary.”
In the more than 20 years since passage of the original law, KCFA says none of the major Honolulu blenders has ever chosen to voluntarily disclosure of the origin of the imported coffee in their blends.
The Bill has been designated as SB No. 2097 and has been referred to the Senate Commerce & Consumer Protection Committee. The Chair of that committee is Senator Rosalyn Baker of Maui. Senator Josh Green is also a member of the committee. Under Senate procedures it is the decision of Chair Baker whether SB 2097 is given a public hearing before the committee. If no hearing on the Bill is scheduled by February 17, the measure dies.
