Pacific Business News (Honolulu)

From the May 2, 2005 print edition

North Shore Noni Aimed at Health-Supplement Market - by Nina Wu

Noni, a knotty, green fruit with legendary healing powers and a
distinctive pungent odor, is being positioned as the latest
breakthrough product for Hawaii's diversified agricultural industry.

Used for centuries as a healing plant in Polynesian cultures, the
South Pacific fruit is now being distributed worldwide as noni juice,
noni tea and noni capsules.

The fruit, leaves and seeds are believed to help treat a variety of
ailments, from diabetes to arthritis, asthma, eye problems, fever and
skin wounds.

While skeptics may deride noni as another one of those exotic cures of
questionable effect, there is a growing worldwide market for noni.

Utah-based Tahitian Noni International, established in the 1990s,
claims it brings in close to $500 million annually in sales.

Now processor Kamauoha Farms on the North Shore of Oahu is hoping to
cultivate as well as process the fruit, with its own brand name, to be
sold exclusively to another Utah-based firm, Innomark Inc.

"There's a huge and growing market for noni," said Spencer Kamauoha,
project manager of Kamauoha Farms. "The economic potential is huge.
It's expanding to Japan, Korea and Germany."

Innomark, a 6-year-old company, sells about 30 tons of noni in various
products monthly, according to president Casey Foster. It also has a
plant in Papeete, Tahiti.

Innomark sealed an agreement with Kamauoha Farms last September to
purchase all of its noni products.

"I want to build the majority of our business eventually from Hawaii,"
said Foster. "Kamauoha Farms is very detailed in processing and making
very clean stuff."

He estimated sales at Innomark have grown about 20 percent in the last
year.

The noni industry is well-known in Tahiti, but farms are sprouting
across the Pacific, including Fiji, Tonga and Niue.

Kamauoha believes there is great marketing potential for Hawaiian noni.

There are already about 100 small farmers on the Big Island who have
been supplying Innomark with noni. In September, they joined Kamauoha
Farms, which now manages the farms.

Seeds will soon be planted by Kamauoha Farms on an 80-acre plot in
Waialua, and the plants should begin bearing fruit in a year.

The potato-like fruit grows from the Morinda citrifolia tree, native
to the Polynesian islands. It does not require much water, according
to Kamauoha, and produces fruit year-round. "To me, it's an ideal
product to sustain an income," he said.

In fact, noni can be found along mountain trails and in backyards. But
it has a short shelf life and begins to go soft within a day of being
picked.

With federal grants provided by the Administration for Native
Americans and the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Kamauoha Farms
bought its own juicing machine and a commercial dessicator.

Kamauoha estimates he ships about 16,000 litres of noni per month to
Utah, where Innomark bottles the juice and sells it wholesale to
distributors.

Just last week, Innomark sent Kamauoha Farms its first shipment of
labeled bottles of North Shore Noni.

Unlike any other noni products on the market, according to Kamauoha,
this noni juice has a lighter, reddish-brown amber color and fresher
taste due to a carefully refined filtering system.

It's clear there are no flavors added to cut the unmistakably sour
taste of the noni juice, which is being marketed as a "liquid dietary
supplement," not a thirst quencher. Only one tablespoon per day is
recommended.

A bottle of North Shore Noni is expected to sell in stores for $18.95
per 18-ounce bottle.

North Shore Noni will bear Innomark's "Natural Styles" brand name, but
also a Made in Hawaii label. And it's certified as kosher.