Agriculture is a lifestyle, according to the Kahuku Farm family. They said their farm maintains its integrity by sourcing and distributing local products. Despite the initial appearance, the family-run farm has multiple divisions driving demand for tractor tours, a cafe, and take-home culinary, home, and planting packages.
“When you come on the property you see a small little tractor driving around once in a while. You may think this is such a small and cute business, but there is so much that goes on behind that parking lot,” shared Kylie Matsuda-Lum, administrator and marketing director of Kahuku Farms at the BYU–Hawaii Entrepreunership Lecture Series on March 28.
She added, “We have different divisions... the cafe... a separate kitchen... tour department, [and] we have the office department which supports every presentation so it’s quite a team that we have built.”
More than 40 acres of land stretches across Kahuku Farms. Farm tours, bath and body, and culinary packages are offered in the different divisions offered, according to Matsuda-Lum.
Judah Lum, director of operations at Kahuku Farms, said agriculture is a lifestyle that very few people are actually doing, and everyone eats but most people do not think about where the food comes from. The opportunity to be part of this process is something Lum and his team are very grateful to do at Kahuku Farms.
“A lot of times consumers are not personally responsible to take care of the plants and animals to survive,” said Lum. “As long as we’ve got a couple of dollars in our pocket, we can go to Taco Bell. These are privileges today that I think a lot of us take for granted.”
Bee fresh, bee local
Lum continued, “For us, it was about diversifying our family operation and creating a brand surrounded by agriculture. It’s a lifestyle that we want to create. We’ve identified lifestyle as things that you eat, things that you do, your experiences, the way that you think.
“What we choose to buy is always up to us and what we buy is how we use our dollars and who we choose to support.”
Lum said his motivation is Kahuku Farms. “It’s what gets us up in the morning and it's always not about if you have a job, it’s about how many jobs you will get to be doing that day. It doesn’t matter how much money you have in your bank, your lifestyle is how you really choose to live. Finding purpose in your business plan that resonates personally with you is defining.
“Farm-to-table is an amazing concept and it’s something we really wanted to align ourselves with, and education – showing people what goes into producing the consistency of life.”
Lum shared, “My wife has our bee logo and the bee represents agriculture. It’s also a sense about the way you think, such as be fresh, be local, be proud, and being aloha. Aloha really means the breath of life as we say in our Hawaiian culture and really looks at acknowledging the source of life.”
He continued, “For us, it's how we strive to live our business and our lives: to leave it better than when we found it. When we read these types of standards, then we can relate to it and it gives [us] the energy to do something for the long-term achievement.”
Family operated and a focused destination
“Our family has been a huge part of this process of taking the agriculture business to the public. Ultimately what we are trying to do is create a destination,” said Lum. He thanked the students from the hospitality and tourism management program at BYU–Hawaii for devoting their time to the farm.
David Preece, the founding academic advisor of the Center for Hospitality and Tourism Management, said the HTM program has successfully partnered with Kahuku Farms for several years.
Preece said, “First, some of our classes include a field trip to Kahuku Farms so the students can see and hear first-hand about operating a small agri-tourism organization. They learn about the business model, its origins and startup, the challenges, its customer base, the guest experience, and potential growth opportunities.”
The HTM 200 Practicum course is working with Kahuku Farms as one of the many weekly rotation sites. Students work several hours each week through the semester at four different organizations to get broad-experiential exposure, Preece said.
Preece explained Kahuku Farms provides a growing opportunity for many international students who come from developing nations with significant environmental and rural assets that can be leveraged in sustainable tourism.
“From a business perspective as an entrepreneur in agriculture,” said Lum, “there are a lot of factors and pressures that are against you. Part of the reason why we are still in business today is because of our grandparent's ability to manage resources to be accountable to make the decision to make things possible to continue to learn and make adjustments.”
Preece said BYUH students in similar circumstances or who are interested in eco-tourism or agri-tourism work as interns at Kahuku Farms and BYUH graduates are hired as full-time employees.
Many family members of Matsuda-Lum are employed at the farm and she said everyone is responsible for their task. “If we all know what responsibilities we have, it takes away the conflict and defines roles.”
Maintaining the integrity of the mission
To maintain the mission of the locally-sourced products, Kahuku Farms keeps integrity in its ingredients even when inventory stocks out. Lum said the local açaí bowl is off the menu for the next projected six weeks while they wait for another açaí harvest.
“We don’t want to be sold out of açaí bowls especially when people are driving from Waikiki to taste Hawaii’s own local açaí. However, as a business we want to be true to our brand, which is authentic local products,” Lum explained.
Kahuku Farms offers a frozen chocolate banana smoothie bowl as a substitute.
“We are always trying to find new angles to market and we found chocolate is something a lot of people are interested in. Hawaii is the only state which grows cacao as it is near the equator,” Lum said.
Farm beginnings
Matsuda-Lum graduated from Kahuku High School and the travel industry management school at the University of Hawaii. She said she grew up on a farm but did not work on the farm because her parents always felt that farming was too risky. Although she said she never thought she would return to a farm, Matsuda-Lum shared, “It wasn’t until college that I was old enough to appreciate what my family did as farmers.”
According to their website, Kahuku Farms is a result of two farming families spanning back three generations in Hawaii. Descendants of the Matsuda and Fukuyama families migrated to Hawaii from Japan to work in the sugar plantations in the 1900s.
While visiting the Maui lavender farm Ali’i Kula, Matsuda-Lum said she loved the idea people could walk around and buy culinary products and go on tours. She explained, “That is the beginning of why we opened Kahuku Farms because of that little lavender farm in Maui that sparked the interest. So just hospitality background and the rest we learn as we go. “
For further reference, visit the Kahuku Farms website at kahukufarms.com, or their farm located at 56-800 Kamehameha Hwy, Kahuku, Hawaii.
Writer: Geena DeMaio