A guest asked us that question on a warm Tuesday morning last harvest season. She was standing at the edge of our farm in Holualoa, holding a freshly filled tasting cup, watching the mist roll off the slopes of Hualalai. "Does your coffee have a fair trade label?" she asked. It was a good question. And the honest answer was not a simple yes or no.
We hear some version of that question often. Conscious coffee drinkers want to know that the people who grew their coffee were treated with dignity and paid fairly. That instinct is exactly right. Fair trade certification exists because millions of coffee farmers around the world have been exploited by commodity markets for generations, and a movement grew up to push back against that. The label means something real. And it also carries limitations, contradictions, and nuances that most coffee bags do not have room to explain.
At Buddha's Cup, we grow our coffee on the volcanic slopes above Holualoa at roughly 1,400 feet of elevation, where the afternoon clouds roll in like clockwork and cool the trees just enough to slow the cherry development and concentrate the sugars. We pick, process, roast, and sell our own coffee. We know exactly who works on this land, how they are treated, and where every pound goes. That direct chain of accountability shapes how we think about certification, what it verifies, and what it cannot replace.
This article is our attempt to give you a thorough, honest account of what fair trade certification actually does for the farmers behind your cup, specifically in the Kona context. If you are new to Kona coffee entirely, our guide to Kona coffee is a good place to start before coming back here. For everyone else, let us walk through the certification mechanics, the Kona market realities, the gaps in what labels can promise, and what it means to buy coffee ethically from one of the most distinctive coffee-growing regions on earth.
What Fair Trade Coffee Certification Actually Is
Before we can talk about what fair trade certification means for a Kona farmer specifically, we need to understand what it means in general. The term gets used loosely, and that looseness costs consumers clarity and sometimes costs farmers the full value of the standard. So let us start with the mechanics.
The Core Mechanics: Price Floors and Social Premiums
Fair trade coffee certification is built on two financial pillars. The first is a minimum price floor for green coffee. When global commodity prices drop, as they do unpredictably and sometimes catastrophically, the fair trade price floor guarantees that certified farmers and cooperatives receive at least a baseline price per pound regardless of what the C market is doing. This floor is designed to cover the cost of sustainable production, which commodity pricing often does not. For conventional fair trade coffee, that floor has been set at $1.40 per pound for washed Arabica, with adjustments for organic and other categories. The floor does not cap what farmers can earn. It only sets the bottom.
The second pillar is the social premium. On top of the floor price, buyers of fair trade certified coffee pay an additional amount per pound, typically $0.20 for conventional coffee and slightly higher for organic certified coffee, that goes into a collective fund. That fund is managed by the cooperative or producer organization, and the members vote on how to spend it. Community projects are common: school buildings, medical clinics, irrigation infrastructure, processing equipment upgrades. The social premium is real money with real impact when cooperatives are well-run and member participation is strong.
What matters to understand, though, is the gap between what a consumer pays at the register and what actually reaches the farm. That retail price premium and the producer-level premium are not the same number. When you pay more for a fair trade bag of coffee, that extra margin is split across multiple parties, the retailer, the roaster, the importer, and the certification body itself, before any benefit lands at the farm gate. This is not a scandal. It is the structure of a supply chain. But it is worth knowing, because the assumption that "I paid more, so the farmer got more" is only partially true.
The Two Major Certification Bodies and How They Differ
Not all fair trade certification is identical. There are two dominant bodies in the coffee world, and they operate on different models.
Fairtrade International, also known as FLO or the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations, was the original standard. It focuses primarily on small-farmer cooperatives in developing countries. The model assumes democratic control by producers, collective bargaining power, and reinvestment of social premiums into the community. It is a strict model for the cooperative structure it was built for. The FAIRTRADE Mark, the well-known blue and green logo, is the consumer-facing certification that FLO issues.
Fair Trade USA split from Fairtrade International in 2011 and took a broader approach. It extends certification eligibility to larger estates and to hired farm workers on those estates, not just cooperative members. The rationale was that many coffee-growing countries have labor structures that do not fit neatly into the cooperative model, and that workers on estates also deserve protection. Critics of this expansion argued that it diluted the standard and allowed large plantations to claim a certification originally designed to elevate the smallest, most vulnerable producers. Both perspectives have merit.
As of 2026, there are 592 Fairtrade producer organizations worldwide, representing more than 775,000 farmers and workers. The global scale of the movement is significant, and it has genuinely shifted market dynamics in many regions. Beyond these two bodies, you will also encounter Rainforest Alliance certification, which focuses more heavily on environmental and sustainability standards than on price floors, and organic certification, which addresses agricultural practices but says nothing directly about economic fairness. These labels overlap in some areas and diverge sharply in others. A bag can carry multiple certifications, and each one verifies a different set of claims.
What Certification Verifies Beyond Price
Fair trade certification is not only a financial instrument. It also sets standards for how the coffee is produced. Labor protections are part of the audit: no forced labor, no child labor, safe working conditions, and the right to organize. Environmental standards vary somewhat by certifying body but typically require that farms avoid certain prohibited pesticides, implement soil and water conservation practices, and work toward reducing their environmental footprint over time. These standards are audited, not self-reported. Third-party auditors visit certified operations to verify compliance. That verification step is important because it distinguishes a certified claim from a marketing claim.
At the same time, the evidence on economic outcomes is more complicated than the labels suggest. Peer-reviewed research on fair trade's income effects is genuinely mixed. Some studies show meaningful income improvements for certified farmers. Others find that the costs of certification, including application fees, annual audit fees, cooperative membership dues, and recordkeeping requirements, can offset or even exceed the income gains from the social premium, particularly for the smallest farms. This is not an argument against the standard. It is an argument for approaching it with clear eyes. Certification is a floor, not a guarantee of prosperity, and the floor matters most when market prices are at their lowest.
With that foundation in place, we can turn to the Kona context, where many of these dynamics play out very differently than they do in Guatemala or Ethiopia or Indonesia.
The Kona Coffee Landscape: Why Context Changes Everything
Fair trade certification was designed with a specific problem in mind: small farmers in developing countries being paid exploitative prices by commodity traders, with no leverage and no alternatives. That problem is real and ongoing, and the certification has helped address it in many parts of the world. But the Kona coffee market operates under a very different set of conditions. Understanding those conditions is essential before asking whether fair trade certification is relevant, necessary, or sufficient in this context.
Kona Coffee's Legal and Geographic Identity
Kona coffee can only be grown in the Kona district on the Big Island of Hawaii. That is not a marketing claim. It is a legal designation enforced under Hawaii state law. The Kona district runs roughly along the western slopes of Mauna Loa and Hualalai, from Kailua-Kona in the south up through Holualoa and beyond, a belt of volcanic soil, afternoon cloud cover, and humid sea breezes that creates one of the most distinctive growing environments for coffee on earth. Holualoa, where our farm sits, is at the heart of this belt, at an elevation where temperatures are moderate year-round and the volcanic soil drains well while retaining just enough moisture to keep the trees healthy through the dry season.
The legal protection around the name "Kona coffee" has been fought for and defended over decades. The "100% Kona Coffee" designation requires that every bean in the bag was grown in the Kona district. There have been significant legal battles, including a prominent lawsuit covered by the Los Angeles Times, over the mislabeling of coffee as Kona when it was not. These fights matter because the Kona name carries premium value, and when that name is diluted by fraud, real farmers lose real income.
If you have ever seen a coffee labeled "Kona blend" at a much lower price than 100% Kona and wondered what the difference is, the answer is significant. We explain it in detail in our post on the difference between Kona coffee and a Kona blend. The short version is that a Kona blend can legally contain as little as 10% Kona coffee by weight. You can also read about blending Kona coffee with other beans to understand how labeling rules work in practice and where the gray areas exist.
Why Kona Farmers Are Paid Differently Than Global Commodity Farmers
The global coffee commodity market has a troubling track record. Much of the world's coffee is grown by smallholder farmers who receive a small fraction of the retail price of the coffee they produce, with no protection against price collapses and no mechanism to invest in quality improvements. Fair trade certification was built to address this structural injustice. And in that context, the minimum price floor it sets is genuinely transformative for farmers who would otherwise receive less.
Kona coffee operates in a different tier. Because of its legal geographic protection, its reputation for quality, and the high cost of labor and land on the Big Island, Kona coffee commands specialty pricing that is far above commodity minimums. A pound of green Kona coffee traded at prices that ranged from roughly $18 to $45 per pound in recent years, depending on grade and variety, compared to global commodity prices that have hovered in the $1.00 to $2.50 range per pound over the same period. The fair trade minimum price floor of $1.40 per pound for washed Arabica is simply not relevant at Kona market prices. The floor is well below where Kona coffee already trades.
Kona farmers are predominantly small, family-run operations. Many grow coffee on parcels of two to ten acres. They are not multinational plantation owners. They are families who have built their lives on this land, often across multiple generations, investing in the soil, in the trees, and in relationships with the community around them. We write about that legacy in more depth in our post on Kona coffee farmers' legacy. These are not the farmers that fair trade was primarily designed to protect, not because they do not need or deserve ethical market conditions, but because the structural threat to their income is different in nature.
The Authenticity Problem That Affects Farmer Income Most
The biggest economic threat facing many genuine Kona coffee farmers is not low commodity pricing. It is mislabeling. When a retailer sells a 10% Kona blend at a price that implies 100% Kona content, two harmful things happen. First, consumers are deceived. Second, the market for genuine 100% Kona coffee is undermined, because consumers who feel burned by a low-quality "Kona" experience may not come back for the real thing. That eroded trust translates directly into lost income for farmers who are doing everything right.
This is why the certification landscape around Kona coffee is as much about authenticity and geographic verification as it is about fair trade economics. We dig into the full range of relevant credentials in our post on international certifications for Kona coffee, which covers what third-party bodies are involved and what each one actually verifies. With that broader picture in mind, we can get specific about what fair trade certification adds, and where its limits are, for a Kona farmer deciding whether to pursue it.
What Fair Trade Certification Means in Practice for a Kona Farmer
This is the most important section of this article, because it is where the general principles meet the specific reality of farming on the Big Island. We want to give you an honest, grounded picture of what pursuing, holding, or not holding fair trade certification actually means for a small Kona operation.
The Price Premium Question: Does It Move the Needle?
As we noted above, the fair trade minimum price floor for green Arabica coffee is set well below the prices that quality Kona coffee commands in the market. This means that for a Kona farmer selling at specialty prices, the floor itself provides no additional protection. The Kona market already sits above it. Where fair trade does offer something tangible is in the social premium, that additional $0.20 per pound for conventional fair trade coffee paid into a cooperative fund. Even if the floor is not relevant, the premium represents incremental value.
But the math requires scrutiny. Consumer willingness to pay for ethically sourced coffee is real and documented. Survey data consistently shows that roughly 75% of consumers say they would pay more for fairly sourced goods, with an average stated willingness of about 35% more for certified coffee. That consumer appetite funds the premium pool at the retail level. The question for a Kona farmer is whether that premium, after it flows through the supply chain and after certification costs are deducted, results in a meaningful improvement in farm-gate income. The answer depends heavily on volume, cooperative structure, and what the farmer's current direct market relationships look like.
For a farm selling 1,000 pounds of green coffee per year, a $0.20 per pound social premium translates to $200 annually before any costs are deducted. That is not nothing. But it is not transformative either, and it comes with a set of compliance obligations that carry their own costs. The honest framing is that for a small Kona farm already selling at specialty prices through direct relationships, the financial case for fair trade certification is not obvious. That does not mean it is wrong to pursue it. It means the reasons to pursue it are more about standards, values, and market signaling than about the price math.
It is also worth repeating that the retail price premium consumers pay for a fair trade labeled bag and the producer-level social premium the farmer receives are not the same amount. The extra dollars a consumer pays at the register do not flow dollar-for-dollar to the farm. That gap is a structural reality of the supply chain, not a failure of the certification system, but it is important to understand when you are deciding how to allocate your coffee budget.
The Compliance and Overhead Reality
Certification is not free, and the costs are not trivial for a small operation. Applying for fair trade certification requires documentation of farm practices, labor arrangements, and cooperative membership. Annual audits require preparation, record-keeping, and third-party audit fees. Cooperative membership, which is typically required for Fairtrade International certification, comes with its own dues, governance participation requirements, and administrative overhead. For a large cooperative with hundreds of members, these costs are spread broadly enough to be manageable. For a micro-farm of two to five acres, the per-pound cost of compliance can be significant.
Research on fair trade outcomes has consistently found that income effects can flip negative when compliance costs are factored into the full picture, particularly for the smallest producers. This is a nuanced finding that fair trade advocates and critics both have a stake in interpreting correctly. The takeaway is not that certification is a scam. The takeaway is that it works best at a certain scale and in a certain market context, and that small farmers considering certification should do the full math before committing.
For many small Kona farms, direct trade relationships with roasters, direct-to-consumer sales, and farm-based retail and tourism represent more financially effective paths to fair compensation than certification-based market access. This is not because Kona farmers are opposed to fair trade principles. It is because the certification infrastructure was built for a supply chain that looks different from theirs. When a farmer sells directly to you, the middlemen come out of the equation entirely, and the farmer captures a larger share of the value you are paying.
The Standards That Protect More Than Price
Even where the price math does not make a compelling case for fair trade certification, the social and environmental standards embedded in the certification carry genuine value that goes beyond dollars per pound. Labor protections matter on every farm, including small family farms that hire seasonal workers during harvest. Safe working conditions, fair wages for hired help, and clear prohibitions against exploitative labor practices are worth formalizing, documenting, and verifying, regardless of whether a certification logo ends up on the bag.
Environmental standards in fair trade certification align closely with practices that many conscientious Kona farmers already follow. Soil health, water management, and reduced reliance on synthetic inputs are not just certification requirements. They are good farming, and they are reflected in the quality of the coffee that comes off the land. We talk about our approach to these practices in our posts on Kona coffee sustainability and Hawaiian full circle farming, both of which get into the specifics of how we think about the land and what we owe it.
The key point is that fair trade certification requires that these standards be audited. This is meaningful because it creates external accountability. A farm that meets fair trade standards has had a third party verify those claims. That verification is worth something, even when the price floor is not the operative protection. For consumers who want to know that their coffee was produced under conditions that protect workers and the environment, an audited certification carries more weight than a brand's self-description of its own practices, however sincere that description may be.
How Buddha's Cup Approaches Ethical Coffee Without a Single Label Telling the Whole Story
We want to be direct with you about where we stand. We grow 100% Kona coffee on our farm in Holualoa. We pick our cherries, process them on-site, roast them in small batches, and sell them directly to visitors, online customers, and retail partners. The entire value chain, from the tree to the bag in your hands, runs through people we know by name. That structure creates a form of accountability that is different from, and in some ways more direct than, what a third-party certification can provide. It does not make us better than certified farms. It makes us accountable in a way that is visible and verifiable without a logo.
What ethical looks like on our land is not a list of compliance checkboxes, though we maintain high standards across every area that those checkboxes address. It is the way we treat the people who work alongside us during harvest, the way we manage the soil between our rows of Typica trees, the way we make decisions about inputs and irrigation with the long-term health of the land as the primary consideration. It is the relationships we maintain with the broader Holualoa community, a town with deep roots in Kona's agricultural and artistic heritage. It is the fact that we have been here long enough to understand what this land requires and to take that responsibility seriously in every season. We explore more of that philosophy in our writing on Kona coffee farmers' legacy and on Kona coffee sustainability.
Direct-to-consumer and direct-to-visitor relationships create accountability that sometimes exceeds what a label can verify. When you visit our farm, walk the rows with us, taste the coffee at the source, and ask us directly about how we operate, you are doing something a certification auditor does once a year. You are creating an ongoing relationship with a producer whose face and name you know. That relationship is the most powerful quality and ethics assurance available in any supply chain. We are not saying "skip the labels and trust us." We are saying that transparency and access are forms of verification, and we welcome both. Our farm tours, from the free walking introduction to the VIP ATV experience and Manny's Walking Tour, exist in part because we believe that an open farm is an honest farm. Come and see what we do. That invitation is genuine, and it carries the kind of accountability that no paper certification can fully replicate.
Reading Coffee Labels as a Conscious Consumer: A Practical Guide
Understanding what fair trade certification means in theory and in the Kona context is useful. But you also need to know how to apply that understanding when you are standing in a coffee aisle or scrolling through an online shop. This section is for the buyer who wants to shop well and ask the right questions.
How to Evaluate a Fair Trade Claim on a Coffee Bag
The first thing to know is that the words "fair trade" on a coffee bag do not, by themselves, mean anything legally enforceable. Any brand can print those words on its packaging. What carries meaning is the specific certification logo from an accredited body. The FAIRTRADE Mark, issued by Fairtrade International, and the Fair Trade Certified seal, issued by Fair Trade USA, are both backed by audit processes and enforceable standards. If you see one of those logos, the coffee meets the documented requirements of that specific standard. If you see only the phrase "fair trade" with no logo and no certifying body named, you have no independent verification of that claim.
Second, check whether the certification covers 100% of the coffee in the bag or only a portion of it. Some certified products use a "blended" model where only a percentage of the content meets the certification standard. This is especially relevant in the coffee world, where blends are common. For Kona specifically, a bag that claims fair trade certification should ideally also carry the 100% Kona Coffee designation, so you know you are getting both geographic authenticity and ethical sourcing verification. Understanding how blend labeling works is crucial, and our post on blending Kona coffee with other beans explains the rules and the loopholes in that area.
Third, remember that the social premium flows to the cooperative, not directly to individual farmers. This does not make the premium meaningless. Community investments funded by that premium have real and lasting impact. But if you are imagining that the extra two dollars you paid at the register went directly into a specific farmer's bank account, the reality is more diffuse. The premium goes into a collective fund, the collective decides how to use it, and the benefits are distributed across the membership. That is a sound model for community development. It is just not the same as direct farmer income support.
What to Look for Beyond the Label
Certifications matter, but they are not the only form of sourcing assurance available to a conscious coffee buyer. Farm-of-origin transparency is one of the most powerful signals of honest sourcing. Can the brand tell you who grew the coffee? Can they name the farm, the cooperative, or the region with specificity? A brand that can answer those questions clearly is demonstrating a level of supply chain knowledge that most commodity roasters do not have.
Direct trade relationships are another meaningful indicator. Some roasters bypass certification entirely and negotiate prices directly with farmers, often paying above fair trade minimums and building multi-year relationships that provide farmers with income stability and quality feedback. These relationships are not audited by third parties, which means they depend on the roaster's honesty and the farmer's ability to hold them accountable. But at their best, they deliver better outcomes for farmers than the certification-mediated model, because the value stays in fewer hands between the farm and the cup.
Traceability is a related concept. Can you follow the coffee from your bag back to a specific farm or cooperative? Some brands publish detailed sourcing reports. Others simply list a country of origin. The more specific the traceability, the more confident you can be that the brand knows and cares about where its coffee comes from. For Kona coffee specifically, the "100% Kona Coffee" designation is itself a geographic verification standard that goes beyond most commodity certifications. It tells you exactly where the coffee was grown and assures you that every bean in the bag shares that origin. We cover the full range of verification tools in our post on international certifications for Kona coffee.
Questions Worth Asking Before You Buy
Conscious coffee buying is an act of informed decision-making, and the best decisions come from asking good questions. Here is a list of questions worth putting to any coffee brand, whether the bag carries a certification label or not.
- Who certified this coffee, and when was the most recent audit conducted?
- What percentage of the bag's content is certified under that standard?
- Where does the social premium go, and what has it funded recently?
- Can I see the farm, visit the cooperative, or access documentation about how this coffee was produced?
- Is the price I am paying consistent with specialty-grade sourcing, or does the low price suggest corners were cut somewhere in the supply chain?
- Does this brand publish transparency reports about its sourcing practices and the prices it pays to producers?
- How long has the brand been working with the farmers or cooperatives that produced this coffee?
- If this is Kona coffee, is it 100% Kona, or does the label only imply Kona origins without guaranteeing them?
These questions shift the dynamic from passive consumption to active inquiry, and brands with genuine sourcing integrity will welcome them. For Kona coffee, there is one more option worth noting: you can visit the farm. That is not just a tourism experience. It is a form of due diligence. When you taste coffee at the source, speak with the people who grew it, and see the land and the process firsthand, you gain a quality of assurance that no printed label can fully provide. Our farm tours at Buddha's Cup are designed with exactly that openness in mind.
The Bigger Picture: Fair Trade, Farmers, and the Future of Kona Coffee
When we zoom out from the specific mechanics of certification and look at the broader trajectory of coffee farming, the fair trade movement represents something important: a collective insistence that the people who grow one of the world's most beloved commodities deserve dignity, stability, and a share of the value they create. As of 2026, the global network of Fairtrade certified producer organizations has grown to 592 organizations, representing more than 775,000 farmers and workers. That scale reflects decades of consumer pressure, farmer organizing, and institutional commitment to a different model of trade. It is a meaningful achievement, even given all the nuances and limitations we have discussed.
Consumer demand for ethically sourced products is not fading. Survey after survey shows that roughly 75% of consumers say they would pay more for fairly sourced goods. That willingness, when it translates into actual purchasing behavior, funds the premium pool that supports farmer incomes and community investments. The gap between stated willingness and actual purchasing behavior is real, and closing that gap is one of the ongoing challenges for the fair trade movement. But the direction of consumer sentiment is clear, and brands that take ethical sourcing seriously are increasingly rewarded for that commitment.
For Kona specifically, the pressures on farmer income are real and growing. Mislabeling and fraudulent blends continue to undermine the premium that genuine 100% Kona coffee commands. Climate variability on the Big Island is shifting growing conditions in ways that require adaptation and investment. Input costs for fertilizers, equipment, and labor on a U.S. island are structurally higher than in most of the world's major coffee-growing regions. And generational transition is an ongoing question: when a family that has farmed the same slopes for three or four decades considers whether the next generation will carry the work forward, the economics of the farm matter enormously.
What fair trade principles point toward, even when formal certification is not the operative mechanism, is a vision of the coffee trade that is built on stable prices, community investment, environmental stewardship, and labor dignity. These are the values that have always defined good farming in Kona, and they are the values that will determine whether Kona coffee remains a living, farmer-centered tradition into the 2040s and beyond. The choices consumers make today, about which bags they buy, which farms they trust, and which stories they choose to support with their dollars, are not abstract. They are part of the ecosystem of decisions that determines who is farming this land in the generations to come. We explore the depth of that legacy in our post on Kona coffee farmers' legacy, and we write about how sustainable farming practices on the Big Island connect to that future in our post on Kona coffee sustainability.
Every bag of genuine 100% Kona coffee, bought from a farm you trust, is a vote for this landscape and these farmers. It is a vote for the volcanic slopes of Holualoa continuing to produce coffee that is worth writing about, arguing about, and traveling across an ocean to taste. That is a responsibility worth taking seriously, and we take it seriously every day on this farm.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Is Kona coffee fair trade certified?
Some Kona coffee is fair trade certified, and some is not. Fair trade certification is voluntary, and the decision to pursue it involves weighing certification costs against the benefits in a market where Kona coffee already commands specialty pricing well above the fair trade minimum price floor. Many small Kona farms achieve ethical sourcing outcomes through direct trade relationships, transparent operations, and direct-to-consumer sales rather than through formal fair trade certification. The absence of a fair trade label on a Kona coffee bag does not mean the coffee was produced under unfair conditions. It may simply reflect the farmer's assessment that direct accountability serves both parties better than a certification label in this specific market context.
Q: Does fair trade certification guarantee higher income for the individual farmer who grew my coffee?
Not in a direct, dollar-for-dollar way. Fair trade certification guarantees a minimum price floor for green coffee paid to cooperatives and a social premium paid into a collective fund that the cooperative manages. That fund supports community projects and infrastructure investments, which benefit members broadly. But the premium does not flow directly to the individual farmer's household income in a simple or immediate way. Research on the actual income effects of fair trade certification at the farm level is mixed. Compliance costs, cooperative overhead, and the structure of premium distribution all affect what an individual farmer ultimately receives. The certification improves market conditions and community resources. It does not function as a direct income transfer to individual growers.
Q: What is the difference between Fairtrade International and Fair Trade USA?
Fairtrade International, also known as FLO, is the original standard and focuses on small-farmer cooperatives in developing countries. It emphasizes democratic producer ownership and collective management of social premiums. Fair Trade USA split from Fairtrade International in 2011 and extended certification eligibility to larger estates and to hired farm workers on those estates, not just cooperative members. This broader scope allows more farmers and workers to access certification but has been criticized by some for diluting the original small-farmer focus of the standard. Both organizations set minimum price floors and social premiums. They differ primarily in which types of producer operations they certify and how they define the relationship between certification and producer ownership.
Q: Why is Kona coffee so expensive if it is not always fair trade certified?
Kona coffee's price reflects a combination of factors that have nothing to do with fair trade certification. The Kona district on the Big Island of Hawaii has a limited growing area, defined by law and by geography. Labor costs in Hawaii are significantly higher than in most global coffee-producing regions. The volcanic soil, elevation, and microclimate of the Kona belt produce a coffee with distinctive flavor