Governance across Hawaii’s staple food commodities sector remains weak and disjointed. The absence of centralized leadership has resulted in fragmented decision-making and inconsistent coordination, particularly in key areas like aggregation, distribution, and processing. While organizations like the Hawaii Farmers Union United and Hawaii Farm Bureau represent producers' interests, there is no unifying body to drive systemic change. The consequence is inefficiency in addressing shared challenges such as infrastructure development and market access, where fragmented efforts prevent the consolidation of resources and market power.
The governance issues are closely interrelated with Support Services and Standards & Certifications. Without a unified governance structure, efforts to standardize certifications and coordinate technical assistance are inconsistent. Producers struggle with disparate guidelines, which often vary between industry associations and government entities. The introduction of collaborative governance models could help facilitate resource sharing, industry-wide standard setting, and strategic development, providing producers a clearer path to overcoming infrastructure and regulatory bottlenecks. Such models could further support aligning initiatives across different commodity groups, from fruits to livestock, ensuring that efforts to improve one segment of the value chain do not come at the expense of others.