Kona Side - Buying Land - Starting Coffee Farm

[Open-D]

Originally Posted by davephan

It seems that the OPs main goal is not to make money selling coffee beans. Rather, just a hobby farm. It seems like a pretty expensive venture for just a hobby farm. Even if you really like to drink coffee, how much coffee can you actually consume each month?

Whenever I drove through the Captain Cook area, which was only a few times, it was always very voggy. The VOG made my throat sore, so I tried to avoid visiting that part of the island. I’m not sure how much of a problem VOG is south of Kona. If VOG is typically a daily occurrence, you might not want to live there, unless you can tolerate VOG. Maybe I was unlucky, and it happened to be voggy every one of the few times I drove through the Captain Cook area. The road south of Kona was pretty poor in my opinion, due to all the twisting and turns. Not really much you could do to improve that, it is what it is... I wouldn’t want to drive that road on a frequent basis.

From what the OP has stated, I have them impression that they might not have ever visited the Big Island. Perhaps they have visited they have visited the Big Island, but that doesn’t come across in the posts that has actually occurred.

I think you have to separate the issues about what you want for a lifestyle and what is a practical and most probable way to make money. It’s one thing to have a small hobby farm for personal fun and satisfaction. It’s something completely different to investment your life savings into a money making or money losing venture. There are a lot of other much easier ways to make money.

Since the last presidential election, things have improved in the US considerably on many accounts. You can look at your 401K balance, very low unemployment, hundreds of “Help Wanted” signs in most businesses, improved VA health care, the recent Right to Try bill that’s very important for people to have some hope in their lives. The mainstream media is filled with absolute hate. Trying to find fault with anything, even if things are obviously improving. Personally, my net worth is much higher in the past 18 months. All I hear are hateful people that don’t like the results, and just cannot accept the result of the last presidential election. If you objectively look at the economy and quality of life in the US, it has improved for most people in the US.

It seems that this might work $$$-wise, if the OP gathers everyone's cut for himself, i.e, the grower's, the processor's, the wholesaler's and the retailers, by growing and processing his own beans, roasting and retailing via Amazon (using FBA). That way, everyone's cut is his cut, soup to nuts (or beans, in this case), all profit-margins are HIS profit margins, and IMHO, the closr you are to the end-consumer, the bigger your cut is, so don't just grow, or process or wholesale, or retail, do it ALL.

Great name, and a great label are imperative. There are others on the BI doing this already, so I suspect it is viable.

[hotzcatz]

Yup, pretty much gotta do it all and get retail returns on the product instead of merely wholesale amount. Having an outlet to sell the coffee is also important. A lot of them will take a large cut of the profits after all the work has been done by the farmer/producer.

One of the best coffee growers I know makes more money renting out the house on the property as a vacation rental than he does growing the coffee, though. His coffee is exquisite, but his profit is in vacation rentals, especially since he has the 'hook' of renting on a 'working coffee farm' so folks can get a 'farm' experience. LOL! The house is NOT a farmhouse, it's fancier than any of the high end resorts.

At the moment, there's enough vog over on Kona side that it may be damaging the coffee crops. Until the lava settles down, it may not be the best time to be growing coffee. Although, it may be a good time to buy since the air quality may be bad enough that people may want to move. Although, what's the Lava Zone for that area? If the lava is active over at Puna, will it also be active over in Kona? One would think the flow in Puna would relieve any lava stress, though?

[Open-D]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

Yup, pretty much gotta do it all and get retail returns on the product instead of merely wholesale amount. Having an outlet to sell the coffee is also important. A lot of them will take a large cut of the profits after all the work has been done by the farmer/producer.

One of the best coffee growers I know makes more money renting out the house on the property as a vacation rental than he does growing the coffee, though. His coffee is exquisite, but his profit is in vacation rentals, especially since he has the 'hook' of renting on a 'working coffee farm' so folks can get a 'farm' experience. LOL! The house is NOT a farmhouse, it's fancier than any of the high end resorts.

At the moment, there's enough vog over on Kona side that it may be damaging the coffee crops. Until the lava settles down, it may not be the best time to be growing coffee. Although, it may be a good time to buy since the air quality may be bad enough that people may want to move. Although, what's the Lava Zone for that area? If the lava is active over at Puna, will it also be active over in Kona? One would think the flow in Puna would relieve any lava stress, though?

I have a strong suspicion that this outbreak will last as long as Puu Oo did, and is, in fact, the "new" Puu Oo. Which fissure will survive, I don't know, but I don't think you've seen much of the beginning, much less having the end in sight.

What effect that will have on coffee (Kona and Kau), remains to be seen as well. I don't think it will help unless it can be used as a marketing gimmick (a piece of Puu Xxx lave with every order)