Sugarcane arrived in Hawai‘i with the Polynesian settlers, and sugar grew into an important industry in the mid-1800s. By the early twentieth century Hawai‘i had become a world leader in sugarcane production and research. However, despite a century of almost continuous growth and development, in the last quarter of the twentieth century the industry faltered, unable to cope with continually increasing costs of production that outpaced sugar prices. Of the twenty-eight sugar companies operating in 1970, only one, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company, better known as HC&S, was still open in 2011. ... More

Sugarcane arrived in Hawai‘i with the Polynesian settlers, and sugar grew into an important industry in the mid-1800s. By the early twentieth century Hawai‘i had become a world leader in sugarcane production and research. However, despite a century of almost continuous growth and development, in the last quarter of the twentieth century the industry faltered, unable to cope with continually increasing costs of production that outpaced sugar prices. Of the twenty-eight sugar companies operating in 1970, only one, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company, better known as HC&S, was still open in 2011. This was no accident. Beginning in the 1870s HC&S gathered water from the windward slopes of East Maui and moved it to its fields in sunny Central Maui. It gradually absorbed the best lands of smaller companies, drilled irrigation wells, mechanized its field operations, improved its fertilizer and irrigation technologies, modernized its factories, and reduced its labor costs. As a result, HC&S was consistently profitable into the twenty-first century. However, low sugar prices and environmental challenges increasingly threaten HC&S’s future. We hope that this book contributes to a balanced public perception and appreciation for HC&S, long Hawai‘i’s largest and now its only sugar company.