The Maui County Resource Center is a great source for business related programs and the classes are free. Most of them are put on between 12pm and 1:15pm and it can sometimes be hard to get the time off from work or busy schedules to attend. There are those rare events that happen in the afternoon and on May 19th, 2009 they sponsored a great class called "How to Bring Food Products to Market part 1" This was the first in a two part series with the second part to take place on May 26 from 4:30 to 6pm.
These classes are a wealth of information for the people that would like to be in business and especially the business owners of Maui. With speakers like Vince Mina of the Maui Aloha Aina Association, a 501c3 organization and owner of Kahanu Aina Sprouts found in many stores and great restaurants, Susie Thieman of Meo, BDC, Anna Ribucan of the Maui County Business Resource Center,Michael Abrams from Maui Food Technology corp. and Susan Teton Campbell of Chef Teton Essential Cuisine, the discussions were great and covered many aspects of the production and marketing of food.
One thing that I picked up on was that there are many entrepreneurs that could stand to meet on a regular basis to help each other and not necessarily compete. There are some really fine ideas and existing businesses that just need some assistance. The fact that they are marketing products from Maui to the world, should be as Vince Mina of Maui Aloha Aina stated "a no brainer as to which products people will buy, Maui of course!"
One point that seems to be common with those in the audience was the cost of shipping and goods coming into Maui, such as jars and containers. The ability to have their products processed so the farmer or owner can concentrate on their work is also a concern. Maui has no real facilities on island.
Vince Mina discussed the idea around a community corporation and how the Maui County council has indicated supporting a conference towards achieving this. A community corporation and co-operative could help to over come the cost of products create a central point to help people work on improving their products and not being tied down to the menial work that just consumes their time, would also be important in it's self.
Maybe one day an organization could be formed to help to create a community resource center and a community corporation to over see it. Why not buy the products from our own community run business?
While I wasn't able to capture the whole talk on Video, I did get Vince Mina's discussion and thought it would help to watch. Please feel free to contact him through his website at www.MauiGrown.org or myself through www.EmpowerMaui.com and maybe we can help facilitate some thing. Also watch www.MauiGrown.org for announcements about the upcoming farm tours and the January 2010 conference with world class speakers presenting on the theme of microbial action relating to the soil and our guts.
 The organisms in the soil and our bodies are very similar.
