Dole Food Company plans to stop coffee farming at its Waialua Estate on Oahu on November 30, ending a decades-old operation after marketing the property for sale for more than a year. Nine jobs are expected to be eliminated.
The planned shutdown joins other major changes affecting U.S. fruit and produce operations, but its scope is limited. Dole says its Hawaii pineapple farming and visitor center will remain open.
Why Dole is leaving coffee farming
Dole’s Hawaii general manager told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the company is leaving the coffee business to focus on its core pineapple operations. The farm had been listed for sale for more than a year, and local business reporting has also pointed to rising production costs.
The official Hawaii WARN notice describes the action as a planned permanent partial closure and divestiture. It says all nine workers are expected to be separated on November 30, although Dole will communicate any available reassignment opportunities inside the company.
The affected positions include three lead operators, three senior agricultural workers, two equipment operators and one mechanical maintenance operator. The workers are not represented by a union and do not have bumping rights that would let them displace less-senior employees.
The Waialua Estate was placed on the market
A real-estate listing says the property includes about 154 acres planted with coffee trees, along with lychee trees, other fruit crops and fallow land. The coffee plantings include Kona typica varieties, plus smaller areas of Mokka and Blue Mountain coffee.
Dole began growing coffee and cacao in Waialua in 1996, after the closure of Waialua Sugar Company. The company sold a nearby cacao orchard in July 2026, while continuing to market the coffee operation and other Oahu agricultural parcels.
A sale could keep the land in agricultural use under a new owner, but Dole’s notice anticipates that the current coffee-farm positions will end. The company did not identify a buyer in its closure announcement or say how quickly it expects the sale process to conclude.
For customers and visitors, the key distinction is that Dole is not leaving Hawaii agriculture altogether. Its pineapple fields and Dole Plantation attraction are outside this closure, and the November 30 action applies specifically to the Waialua coffee operation.
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