Staple Food Commodities
Staple food commodities are defined as those essential agricultural products required to sustain the island’s population. The primary purpose of focusing on this grouping of agricultural products is to enable HIAP's members to better analyze and understand Hawaiʻi Island's food value chains, the market ecosystem that enables these value chains to function efficiently, and the economic capacity to improve the island's food security. By strategically removing systemic constraints, this analysis aims to promote more inclusive, market-driven growth.
To fully understand the market ecosystem for Hawai'i Island's staple food commodities, it is helpful to look at four separate, cross-referenced profiles to form a complete picture. Links to these profiles are provided below.
The market ecosystem components, their interdependencies and the systemic constraints to profitable growth for the island's food producers.
The geographic scope and scale of the staple food commodities value chain throughout the island and where are the areas most in need of help.
The initiatives designed to improve support for staple food commodities and the interventions designed to facilitate sustainable change in the market system.
Staple Food Commodities are categorized in ways that make it as easy as possible to track reported agricultural and economic data, dividing various agricultural products into three primary groups: Fruits, Vegetables & Melons, and Livestock & Dairy. The list of agricultural products included in each group is shown in the table below. It is important to note that some products in the vegetables category are technically fruits but are included with vegetables due to common usage or processing needs.
