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Hawaii dairies falter as prices increaseHONOLULU (AP)--With the highest milk prices in the country, Hawaii's dairy industry is struggling to survive as it competes against lower-cost imports from the mainland. The average price of a half gallon of whole milk in Honolulu during the first half of 2007 was $2.74, the most expensive in the nation, according to The Council for Community and Economic Research in Arlington, Va. San Francisco had the second-most pricey milk at $2.71 per half gallon. The national average was $1.96 per half gallon. Hawaii now imports about 80 percent of its fresh milk, an increase from 55 percent three years ago, said Jeri Kahana, commodities branch manager for the state Department of Agriculture. In the 1980s, Hawaii produced all its own milk. "I get whatever's on sale now because that's all I can afford," said Honolulu resident Sue Watt, who used to buy local milk. There are just four dairies left in the state--three on the Big Island and one on Oahu. Pacific Dairy, the last dairy on Oahu, had planned to shut down this summer but recently changed plans, in part due to new legislation that sets aside $3 million for each of the next two years to subsidize feed costs for dairy and poultry farms. "Based on the new feed subsidies from the state, they decided not to close this summer," said Carissa Tourtelot, spokeswoman for Meadow Gold, the state's only milk processor. Pacific Dairy didn't return phone calls seeking comment in early August. Dairy farmers said they hope to encourage customers to buy local milk by educating them about how much fresher it is than milk imported from the mainland. It takes at least five days for milk shipped from the mainland to reach Hawaii, and it has to be pasteurized a second time before it can go to consumers. "The majority of the population of this state is drinking double-pasteurized, imported milk that is eight days old," said Ben Sadeghi, whose Ahualoa Dairy went out of business two years ago. "Wake up before you have no dairies left in Hawaii." Local milk carries the "Island Fresh" insignia on the cap of gallon jugs or on the packaging of the half gallons. The Big Island still produces 100 percent of its own milk, with the surplus shipped to Maui. Milk on the Big Island is less expensive than milk that comes from the mainland, but that isn't true for the rest of the state, said Bahnam Sadeghi, Ben Sadeghi's brother and an owner of Island Dairy. Date: 8/17/07
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