After weeks of back and forth, a package of māmaki tea that's for sale must now have 100% locally grown māmaki if it's advertised as being grown in Hawaiʻi.
In a Friday bill-signing ceremony, Gov. Josh Green enacted Act 242, or House Bill 496, the vehicle for the new māmaki labeling rules. The law went into effect Tuesday.
Green had signed other agriculture-related measures into law during the ceremony, and as a “surprise” decided to sign HB 496 as well, capping off weeks of uncertainty over the bill by farmers and other stakeholders.
The signing was unexpected, even to Rep. Kirstin Kahaloa, the bill's primary author and previous chair of the House Agriculture and Food Systems Committee.
“I was actually surprised that the governor signed that bill into law because it was on his intent-to-veto list,” Kahaloa said.
In early June, the governor released a list of 19 bills that passed through this year's legislative session that he intended to veto. That included HB 496.
Before that, local māmaki farmers had reached out to the governor’s office and relevant lawmakers opposing the bill.
They feared that the measure would prohibit packages of blended tea, māmaki tea leaves that contain other ingredients like mint or hibiscus, from being labeled as a local product.
Businesses that buy māmaki from farmers reportedly canceled thousands of dollars in orders after the bill made it out of the Legislature.
“I learned out of the blue that the governor was signing it. It was like the air in that balloon — the government's working and it's listening to the people and what the people want — was just taken out,” said Byron Goo, chief tea officer for Tea Chest Hawaii.
Goo provided testimony on the bill, noting that blended products are important to the māmaki tea market, so losing them could in turn hurt the market.
When asked why the governor changed his mind about the bill, his office in a written statement said, “Governor Green's intent-to-veto list contains bills that he will not necessarily veto, but which need thoughtful consultation and careful consideration. After taking those steps, Governor Green signed HB 496 into law today.”
While the signing also caught local officials by surprise, they say the bill only impacts māmaki in packages of tea. That means blended teas shouldn't be affected by the new law.
Kahaloa said the confusion and fear about what the bill would do could stem from the recent passage of labeling laws affecting coffee. Those laws require that more than half of the coffee in packages sold in Hawaiʻi must actually be locally sourced to be labeled as such.
But Kahaloa said HB 496 doesn't operate that way, and will ultimately help protect farmers and māmaki, which is endemic to Hawaiʻi.
“It has significance being an indigenous tea plant. The biggest part of the bill was to ensure the plant couldn't be taken out of Hawaiʻi, planted anywhere else in the world, grown, harvested and dried, and then they still call it māmaki tea,” she said.
But there's still skepticism from stakeholders with concerns about the bill, who still want assurance that blended teas won't be impacted.
“Everybody that I know supports the intent of the bill to promote and to protect māmaki, but the language is so ambiguous that as stakeholders — me as a maker, wholesalers, retailers, people who are investing and supporting māmaki the crop — they don't know if we've gotta stop producing. They don't know if they've gotta take it off their shelves,” said Goo of Tea Chest Hawaii.
The state Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity, in a news release Tuesday afternoon, confirmed that packages of tea “may contain other flavorings or mixes of other types of teas, but the māmaki must be grown and processed in Hawai‘i.”
Going forward, farmers and other stakeholders also hope policymakers reach out when it comes to changes in māmaki.
They said the bill moved through the Legislature without their input, and they weren’t kept in the loop about it going on the governor's intent-to-veto list. They were also caught off guard when Green signed the bill.
But they say if they can be more involved, they can avoid possible issues with future policies.
