VULTURES IN THE DOLE PINEAPPLE FIELDS

Vultures in the...
dole pineapple fields

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May 3, 2008

Dole puts 5,000 acres
in Wahiawa on market

Dole Food Co. has expanded its effort to raise cash by selling Hawai'i land, and is putting 5,000 acres in Wahiawa on the market two months after agreeing to sell 2,000 acres on O'ahu to an unidentified buyer.

The California-based firm with deep roots in Hawai'i said it has hired commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis Inc. to market the property for sale.

Dole spokesman Marty Ordman and CB Richard Ellis officials declined to identify the property except to say it is in Central O'ahu.

Most, if not all, of Dole's Central O'ahu land is in Wahiawa, according to county property records.

Ordman said the land is primarily zoned for agriculture and is leased to farmers growing crops or raising cattle, though some is fallow.

None of the land being put up for sale is farmed by Dole, which grows pineapples on 2,700 acres, and coffee and cacao on an additional 195 acres.

The company owned by billionaire David Murdock has said it intends to continue its agricultural operations in Hawai'i, but is shedding nonstrategic or underperforming assets around the world.

O'ahu land held for sale by Dole represents roughly 25 percent of what the company owns on the island, most of which is pastureland, part of the forestry reserve or leased to others largely for farm use.

According to the most recent information from the state Data Book in 2006, Dole was the seventh-largest Hawai'i private landowner with 28,472 acres.

Dole's presence in Hawai'i dates back more than a century as the place where James Dole founded the company in 1901 as Hawaiian Pineapple Co. and made pineapple production Hawai'i's second-largest industry.

Today Dole is still the second-largest pineapple producer in the state. Dole was also once a major sugarcane grower on O'ahu, but it exited the business when its Waialua Sugar Co. closed in 1996.

Dole's land sale plan on O'ahu will add to thousands of acres of agricultural land in the state that has been on the market or sold in recent years.

Much of the prior selloff was the result of major pineapple producer Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. shutting down local operations in 2006.

After Florida-based Del Monte quit pineapple production in Hawai'i, it returned 5,100 acres of leased land in Kunia to local landowner James Campbell Co.

Campbell has sold or received bids for much of the property, including a $31.3 million sale of 2,300 acres last year to Monsanto Co. for seed crop operations.

About 850 acres of Campbell's Kunia land is listed on the market for $9.2 million by CB Richard Ellis.

In 2004, Del Monte also quit farming pineapple on about 2,000 acres in Wahiawa leased from the George Galbraith Trust with an estimated value of $30 million to $50 million that the state has proposed buying.

Hawai'i's largest pineapple producer, Maui Land & Pineapple Co., also has been selling pieces of "noncore" land in recent years. The company, which owns more than 25,000 acres on Maui and grows pineapple on roughly 4,000 acres, sold nearly 3,000 acres of mostly agricultural land in the past few years.

Dole disclosed in December that it intended to sell Hawai'i land, and in March agreed to sell 2,000 acres on O'ahu to an undisclosed buyer for $39 million in a deal expected to close between July and September. That property also was not identified by Dole but is leased to a seed corn producer.

Dole's move to sell land also is occurring outside Hawai'i and would help the financially struggling company pay off what Bloomberg News calculated to be $350 million in bonds maturing next year.

A diverse food producer with global farming operations, Dole is the world's largest producer and marketer of fresh fruits, vegetables and cut flowers, and also markets a growing line of packaged and frozen foods.

Last year, the company reported a net loss of $58 million on revenue of $6.9 billion, down from a $90 million loss on revenue of $6.2 billion in 2006.

To raise cash, Dole last year sold $41.7 million of assets, and at the end of last year held another $76.2 million in assets for sale — including a fresh-cut flower distribution facility in Florida and more than 4,000 acres in California producing almonds, olives, citrus and grapes.

May 2, 2008

West Coast ports shut down as
workers protest Iraq war

Stoppage anticipated, so few
major disruptions reported

By Ronald W. Powell, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Dole Fresh Fruit Co.'s San Diego operation reported a loss of $316,000 because of a work stoppage yesterday by West Coast dockworkers protesting the Iraq war.

Dole's report of losses, mostly in bananas, was the only one disclosed by local companies in the daylong protest, which involved thousands of workers at 29 ports from San Diego to Seattle.

The work stoppage had a larger effect on ports in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Oakland and Seattle, which are the primary gateways for container shipments from the Far East and other foreign ports....

The protest occurred as contract negotiations between the union and the Pacific Maritime Association are reaching a crucial point. The association saw the protest as a warning shot that more job actions could occur if a new contract is not signed before the current six-year pact expires July 1.

The association said the union defied the ruling of an independent arbitrator, who said last week that the union should fulfill its contract and report to work on May Day. Union heads said workers had the right to skip work to protest the war.

“Shutting down the ports in defiance of the contract and the arbitrator's order in no way benefits an already fragile U.S. economy,” said association spokesman Steve Getzug. “We have a lot of serious issues to resolve at the bargaining table, and the nation cannot afford uncertainty about the reliability of the West Coast ports.”

William Silva, president of Local 29 in San Diego, said the job action was about stopping the war – not getting a new contract.

“Today's action is not about leveraging negotiations at all,” Silva said. “We're supporting our soldiers in the Iraq war – period.”

December 3, 2007

Dole Food Co. may sell
some of its Hawaii land

By Andrew Gomes, Advertiser Staff Writer

Dole Food Co. is considering a plan to put some of its Hawai'i land up for sale under a strategy to shed nonstrategic or underperforming assets around the world.

Westlake Village, Calif.-based Dole, which is one of Hawai'i's largest private landowners and the second-largest pineapple producer in the state, said the idea is preliminary and does not involve land on which it grows crops.

"We are committed to our pineapple operations there, and our coffee and cacao," said Dole spokesman Marty Ordman from California. "Nothing is changing with that."

Dole last year reported farming about 2,700 acres of pineapple and 195 acres of coffee and cacao on O'ahu. According to the most recent information from the state Data Book, Dole was the seventh-largest Hawai'i private landowner with 28,472 acres.

Ordman said it would be premature to quantify or identify land being considered for possible sale. "It's very, very preliminary," he said of the idea.

'NONCORE' LAND SALES

Ordman also said he couldn't specify whether the land under consideration for sale is fallow, used by Dole for other purposes than farming, or leased to tenants who farm the land.

If Dole ends up selling Hawai'i real estate, it would add to thousands of acres of agricultural land in the state that has been on the market or sold in recent years, much of which was the result of major pineapple producer Fresh Del Monte Produce Inc. shutting down local operations last year.

The state's largest pineapple producer, Maui Land & Pineapple Co., also has been selling pieces of "noncore" land in recent years.

Maui Land & Pine, which owns more than 25,000 acres on Maui and grows pineapple on roughly 4,000 acres, sold nearly 3,000 acres of mostly agricultural land in the past two years.

Dole disclosed its potential land sale effort in a quarterly financial report, saying the company is "considering a plan to market certain land parcels" in places including Hawai'i and Latin America.

The company has been in the process of selling assets that don't meet its future strategic direction or profit goals.

This year, Dole sold several Chilean farms, and in recent months classified 4,400 acres in California as assets held for sale. Earlier this year, other farmland for fruit and flower operations in California and Latin America were classified as assets held for sale.

Total assets held for sale were valued at $53 million, according to the report detailing three months of business ended Oct. 6.

Dole, which reported $6.2 billion in revenue last year, is the world's largest producer and marketer of fresh fruits, vegetables and cut flowers, and also markets a growing line of packaged and frozen foods.

The company is owned by billionaire David Murdock, who in 2003 bought out other holders of Dole's publicly traded stock in a $2.5 billion deal that took the firm private.

A STORIED HISTORY

Dole's presence in Hawai'i is a storied one, as it is the place where James Dole founded the company in 1901 as Hawaiian Pineapple Co. and made pineapple production Hawai'i's second-largest industry.

But over the past several decades, with the rise of Dole's international operations and a reduction in Hawai'i farming, much of the company's energy is now concentrated elsewhere.

According to Dole annual reports, the company's O'ahu farming of pineapple on 2,700 acres last year was down from 3,100 acres in 2005. As recently as 2001, the company reported farming 8,000 acres on O'ahu in pineapple as well as papaya and cacao, which included about 1,500 acres the company leased.

Despite the cutbacks, Dole's position in Hawai'i remains significant as a crop producer, employer and landowner.

In addition to the approximately 28,000 acres Dole owns, property records show the company also leases another roughly 20,000 acres, mostly from Kamehameha Schools.

Dole's land holdings don't include property held by its sister company, Castle & Cooke Inc. Castle & Cooke, which owns 98 percent of Lana'i and develops residential and commercial property in Hawai'i and the Mainland, is the third-largest private Hawai'i landowner with about 95,000 acres and also is owned by Murdock.

A decision to sell unproductive land wouldn't change Dole's status as the last major pineapple grower on O'ahu, but Hawai'i pineapple production has been on the decline.

Fresh Hawai'i pineapple production last year dropped to its lowest level since the state began keeping records in 1950.

DWINDLING PINEAPPLE

Much of the reason cited has been competition from foreign producers, and Del Monte's pullout is certain to send local pineapple production to a new low this year.

Florida-based Del Monte quit pineapple production in Hawai'i last year, returning 5,100 acres of leased land in Kunia to local landowner James Campbell Co.

Earlier, in 2004, Del Monte had quit farming pineapple on about 2,000 acres in Wahiawa leased from the George Galbraith Trust.

Campbell has been trying to sell its Kunia land, and has sold or received bids for much of the property, including a purchase earlier this year by Monsanto Co. of 2,300 acres for seed crop operations.

There was a January deadline to bid on the Galbraith land, but the property has not sold.

Andres Albano Jr., a senior vice president with commercial real estate firm CB Richard Ellis, said it has been challenging to sell such vast portions of farmland because the land is often too expensive for small diversified crop farmers but too big for a single user. "There's really no other single crop to replace sugar and pineapple," he said.

Albano, who also was involved in an effort five years ago to sell 70,000 acres of primarily agricultural land on the Big Island and Maui for C. Brewer & Co., said buyers for the Brewer property included wealthy individuals who planned to establish estates or hold the property for possible future development.

Private and public trusts and nonprofit organizations set up to preserve open space also have been active in buying Hawai'i agriculture property.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.

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October 9, 1985

MILILANI NOMINATED FOR CITY AWARD

Ka Nupepa of Mililani

MILILANI, HAWAII - - Governor George B. Ariyoshi has nominated Mililani Town for the All-America City Award for citizen action and organization in cleaning up the pesticide contamination of its drinking water. The All-America City Award is sponsored by Citizens Forum and USA Today.

The nomination of Mililani was drafted by John Evans, a long-time community activist, and it names Samuel S.H. Lee and the Mililani Neighborhood Board as the principal individual and organization at the forefront in spearheading the campaign to have the government clean up the contamination.

In its campaign, the neighborhood board mounted three parallel drives. The first was a series of public forums that brought responsible official and scientists face-to-face with Mililani residents. The second involved written and personal appeals to every elected and appointed official who could possibly assist in solving the problem. Finally, a petition containing 6,220 signatures (almost one per household at that time) was presented to the Honolulu mayor by a group of board members.

These citizen projects resulted in both short-term relief and a long-term solution. Mililani Town, Inc., developer of Mililani, agreed to fund and construct a $2.7 million activated charcoal carbon filter system, which is scheduled for operations in December. The system will be dedicated to the city’s Board of Water Supply for operation.

The state has decided on a longer-range solution and committed $2.5 million in drilling three new wells in the mountains, which have proved to be clean.

Although 80 percent of residents surveyed have complained that the remedial measures are taking too long for completion and are not as effective as they should be, water contamination is becoming a non-issue. Most of the residents now realize that the filter system will soon be operational and new mountain wells can produce pure water, thanks to the initiatives taken by Sam Lee and the Mililani Neighborhood Board.

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July 6, 1986

MILILANI GETS ALL-AMERICAN AWARD

By Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON --- In presenting Mililani Town an All-American Cities Award yesterday, Transportation Secretary Elizabeth Dole praised "aggressive citizen action" that forced a cleanup of the town’s contaminated water supply.

Mililani is one of nine areas selected for the award, sponsored by the Citizens Forum on Self-Government/National Municipal League, and the national newspaper USA Today.

"Not only has Mililani dealt with its problem, but it has insured a safe supply of drinking water for the future," Dole said.

Residents of the town learned in July 1983 that its water supply was contaminated by cancer-causing pesticides residues.

Efforts to correct the problem were opposed, at various times, by state health officials, Dole Pineapple Co. on whose land Mililani was built, & the developer, Mililani Town Inc.

Samuel S.H. Lee, chairman of the Mililani Neighborhood Board, which organized the cleanup effort, said in an interview that the award illustrates the "power of citizens getting involved and the response of government as well as the private sector in meeting problems of the community.

But without citizens insisting on corrective action, he said, "bureaucratic delay and corporate profit" would have made obtaining a solution much more difficult.

Tom Curley, president of USA Today, told the winners, "You are democracy on stage."

The Neighborhood Board of Mililani, a central Oahu town of about 25,000, organized meetings between government officials, scientists, and residents, contacted federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, and increased public pressure by circulating a petition eventually signed by 6,220 people.

Mililani Town Inc. eventually agreed to pay for a $2.5 million carbon-filter system. The state is drilling exploratory wells above the polluted pineapple fields to provide a long-range solution.

http://home.oceanic.com/mililani/community/Stories/american.htm

October 10, 2007

Lawyer: Pesticide left
workers sterile

By NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES – A lawyer for a dozen Nicaraguan banana workers argued Wednesday that Dole Fresh Fruit Co. and Dow Chemical Co. robbed his clients of the ability to have children by overexposing them to a harmful pesticide.

The claim by attorney Duane Miller, who represents the workers, came in his closing argument in a three-month civil trial targeting the world's largest producer of fresh fruits and vegetables and the giant chemical company.

"As adults, we decide whether we want children or not," Miller told jurors. "This is a case about a decision made for my clients instead of by my clients."

The lawsuit accuses Dole and Standard Fruit Co., now a part of Dole, of negligence and fraudulent concealment while using the pesticide DBCP in Nicaragua.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved using the chemical, intended for killing microscopic worms on the roots of banana plants, until 1979. In Nicaragua, it was legal from 1973 until 1993.

The workers also claim Dow "actively suppressed information about DBCP's reproductive toxicity."

Dole and Dow deny liability.

Among five cases filed in Los Angeles County by at least 5,000 agricultural workers from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama, this is the first to go to trial.

During his closing argument, Dow attorney Gennaro "Gus" Filice said the workers did not have enough exposure to DBCP to have any effect. Experts analyzed the exposure and found it to be insignificant, he said....

Filice also claimed many workers had other health problems that could have made it difficult to have children, including venereal disease and infections.

Miller claimed the growers improperly applied the pesticide in amounts far exceeding guidelines.

Many of the workers had slept at the banana plantation, where their clothes became wet from water dripping from pesticide-treated trees, and they routinely breathed vapor from the pesticide, Miller told jurors.

Miller also pointed to documents from the 1960s and 1970s that he said showed Dole and Dow were aware of dangers connected with the pesticide.

"From the beginning the warning signs were there," Miller said.

He noted that medical experts who had examined his clients found 11 of 12 had no sperm in their bodies and detected other symptoms reflecting exposure to a toxic chemical.

In his closing argument, Dole attorney Rick McKnight said Miller told half-truths, and he tried to poke holes in Miller's accounts about his clients.

A judge previously granted Dow's petition to apply Michigan law to the amount and types of possible damages.

Michael L. Brem, one of the attorneys for Midland, Mich.-based Dow, has said this would cap any compensatory damages at $394,200 per plaintiff.

For more, GO TO > > > The Deadly Brew at Dow Chemical

Bill Mills - Chairman of Bill Mills Development & Investment Company, Inc.; former CEO of Castle & Cooke.

From the Maui Lani website:

The principal partner of Maui Lani is Bill Mills, chairman of Bill Mills Development & Investment Company, Inc.

Mr. Mills is a Hawaii-regional developer and former CEO of Castle & Cooke. Mr. Mills, owns, or has owned, through his various companies, prestigious developments on Maui, Lanai, Hawaii, Oahu, and the mainland. Among them, the Turtle Bay Hilton Golf & Tennis Resort, and the Waikiki Galleria Tower.

Mr. Mills is a well-respected Hawaii businessman. He is a member of the board of directors for Hawaiian Electric Industries, Grace Pacific Corporation, Hawaii Pacific Theatre, and the Historic Hawaii Corporation. He is a Trustee of Hawaii Pacific University, the Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, and St. Andrews Priory School. Mr. Mills is also a member of the board of governors for the Iolani School, and has served as a governor, secretary, and vice-chair of the Hawaii Community Foundation.

The Maui Lani community consists of a number of partners who have combined their knowledge and resources to create a dynamic Central Maui community. Leiane Paci and Dave Gleason are the key local contacts for the development side of Maui Lani....

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Maui Lani is the first master-planned community on Maui to receive zoning approval under a “project district” ordinance, which provides for a very flexible and creative approach to planning and development.

This has allowed Maui Lani to create unique land plans and subdivision layouts that sets it apart from anything on Maui and are the reason why Maui Lani Homeowners’ Association exists to oversee the implementation and adherence to the project’s design, controls and overall maintenance.

Maui Lani’s highway, water, sewer, and zoning entitlements are in place, and construction of many new amenities is continuous and evolving every day.

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November 11, 1997

Report rekindles calls
for trustee resignations

Bishop Estate has incurred serious losses,
a master appointed by the court concludes

By Rick Daysog, Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Critics of Kamehameha Schools/Bishop Estate renewed calls for the removal of several trustees after a report concluded that the estate posted $264.1 million in losses and loss reserves in its fiscal year ended June 30, 1994.

In a scathing, 120-page critique of the estate’s investment strategies, the court-appointed master for the estate, attorney Colbert Matsumoto, said the trust’s for-profit subsidiary Pauahi Holdings Inc. suffered losses and write-offs that amount to more than 2 ½ times the $100 million annual operating budget of Kamehameha Schools.

Matsumoto, appointed by the state Probate Court to review the operations of the estate for its 1993-1994 fiscal year, said the trust faces additional “unreported loss exposure” of about $1.9 billion from investments and loan guarantees to third parties....

Matsumoto – who charged that the estate withheld information from him – also said that the trust may be using inflated income figures that boost trustees’ commissions and that the trust may be relying on nonstandard accounting practices that overstate its investment returns....

The master’s report comes as the estate is facing intense scrutiny from federal and state investigators. The Internal Revenue Service is conducting an audit of the estate’s finances and state Attorney General Margery Bronster has opened an investigation into allegations of trustees’ mismanagement.

Bronster, through a spokeswoman, said her agency currently is reviewing the report, which only covers a limited period of the trust’s activity. But she said she found it “appalling” that the estate was holding back information to Matsumoto.

Matsumoto, for one, complained that the trust withheld from him information about some real estate deals such as the lease terms of the Kahala Mandarin Hotel.

He said he was only able to discover the terms after reviewing a Supreme Court decision on a tax appeal filed by WKH Corp., the former owner of the posh hotel.

WKH, headed by William Weinberg, was forced to sell the hotel about four years ago to local developer Bill Mills and Tokyo General Corp. after an arbitration panel increased WKH’s annual lease rent in 1992 from about $96,000 to $5.6 million.

(With the sale to Mills and Tokyo General, the hotel’s lease was restructured so that the current hotel owners now pay a base rent of $1.2 million, plus a percentage of gross income that could yield an additional $4.4 million a year, Matsumoto said.)...

(Catbird note: According to Maui County Real Property Tax Assessment records, the owner of one of the pricey homes on Maui is disbarred attorney Marshall Elliott Lippman. Although the total tax assessment value on the land and home, located at 230 Puumakani St., is $508,600, the curious thing is that there is no indication that Lippman actually PAID anything for the property! Oh, well, probably just an oversight. Or...? )