Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Moo! Milk Production is Up!

With the Hawaiian Islands being pretty small in size, I bet you didn't know that Hawaii has their own dairy farms!  One of the things that people always talk about is the cost of milk in Hawaii being so high, and although there are about 15 dairy farms in Hawaii, much of the milk is still imported.  The good news for Hawaii farmers however is that Hawaii milk production increased 15% in 2009 - which is the first time in 11 years the state has seen a year-over-year production increase, according to a report recently released by the USDA. In 2009, Hawaii’s total milk production was 21.3 million pounds, and milk sales increased 38% from the previous year to $7.5 million. That's a lot of milk!

When you visit Hawaii and you are in the ABC Store looking for milk, look out for Hawaii's Fresh Milk and milk from Meadow Gold Dairies of Honolulu - they are the two main labels you are likely to find.  I hadn't thought about it before but I'm sure the local milk tastes better than the imported milk - next time I visit I may have to do a taste test and find out!

1 comment:

campblsoupgrl said...

I noticed this when I was recently on Oahu. The price of milk was only $1 or so more than on the mainland and I was pleasantly surprised. I'm going to have to try the more local brands next time I go, though.