A Hawaiian Green Tea Cooperative for Rural Development

The target area has rural communities strongly desiring to maintain the agricultural base of the region through diversified agriculture. Green tea enjoys great popularity resulting from its association with positive health benefits. A Hawaiian branded product has been shown to have positive marketability. Successful field production is now at the point where cooperative production agreements need to be devised in order to carry out systematic processing and marketing testing. The project's purpose is to test the feasibility of an upscale, gourmet niche market of Hawaiian grown green tea Hawaii, which would help organize ongoing and start up Hawaiian Green Tea production in rural communities, keep agricultural lands in active production, promote income and employment opportunities for rural residents, and in general, stimulate the development of new agricultural enterprises in rural communities.