Sugar Plantation in Hawaii Gets Reprieve

Alexander & Baldwin Inc. won’t stop farming sugarcane on Maui this year despite huge financial losses incurred in recent years — but it’s still uncertain how much longer Hawaii’s last sugar plantation will exist, reports The Honolulu Advertiser.

The company announced late Thursday night that its subsidiary, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., will continue planting the crop for at least another year.

The decision means that harvesting will likely continue through early 2012.

A&B previously said that $45 million in losses over the last two years would prompt it to make a decision by the end of last year whether to shutter HC&S.

Favorable sugar prices and expectations of higher crop yields based on projections for better weather led the company to back HC&S for at least another year, according to A&B’s chief financial officer, Christopher Benjamin, who took over command of HC&S in March.

A&B’s sugar business now has another year to perform before the operation is reassessed around the end of this year.

A&B’s long-term plan is to convert the plantation to a biofuel farm, and the company intends to craft a strategic plan toward that goal this year.

A&B is exploring ways to produce biodiesel or ethanol from sugar or other plant feedstock, as well as generate electricity from biofuels, solar and wind.

“We believe that there is no better location in Hawai’i for a renewable energy farm, but we will only be able to achieve that long-term potential if we remain a viable sugar plantation in the near term,” Benjamin said.

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