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                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 339________

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.B. No. 562
                                     




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Agriculture, to which was referred H.B.
No. 562 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MEASUREMENT STANDARDS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to add three new terms which may
be used on the label of raw or processed macadamia nuts which
contain only Hawaii grown nuts and prohibits the use of these
three terms on a label of any product that contains any portion
of macadamia nuts not grown in Hawaii.

     Your Committee finds that the macadamia nut industry is one
of the largest single diversified crop in Hawaii with 700 farms
employing over 2,000 people at the farm level.  Your Committee
further finds that the Hawaii grown macadamia nuts are of high
quality when compared with macadamia nuts produced in other areas
of the world.  The rapidly advancing globalization of macadamia
production by Australia and other countries, including Costa
Rica, Guatemala, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa and
Brazil, requires that the Hawaii Macadamia Nut growers
differentiate themselves from competing products produced in
other areas of the world.

     This bill adds three new labels "Hawaii-Grown Macadamia
Nuts", "100% Hawaiian Macadamia Nuts", or "Hawaiian Macadamia
Nuts", that shall appear on the principal display panel of a
consumer package containing raw or processed macadamia nuts grown

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 339________
                                 Page 2

 
in Hawaii, and prohibits the use of these labels on any product
that contains any portion of macadamia nuts not grown in Hawaii.
This measure further deletes the redundancy of section (e).

     Testimonies in support of this bill were received by the
Department of Agriculture, the Hawaii Macadamia Nut Association,
and the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corporation.  The Legislative
Information Services of Hawaii opposed the bill.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Agriculture that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No.
562 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to
the Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce.


                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Agriculture,



                                   ______________________________
                                   FELIPE P. ABINSAY, JR., Chair