Kimo Falconer, president of MauiGrown Coffee, inspects coffee cherries at the orchard above Kaanapali.

LAHAINA — MauiGrown Coffee Inc.’s harvest season is officially under way, and owner James “Kimo” Falconer reported that indicators from seed to cup point to a fruitful season for the six-year-old company.

Approximately 350 acres in the Kaanapali Coffee Farms will be harvested from October through January.

This season, the company anticipates a gross yield of approximately 1,180,000 pounds of cherries with an output of over 350,000 pounds of green coffee — a 17 percent increase over 2008’s numbers.

Favorable growing conditions, the dedicated field workers who tend the coffee plants year-round, support from landowner Kaanapali Land Management Corp. and a growing consumer base for 100 percent Maui Origin Coffee are factors helping this year’s harvest, said Falconer.

MauiGrown Coffee is the largest individually operated coffee grower in the U.S., and the original major producer of coffee grown on Maui.

Falconer believes MauiGrown Coffee is in a strong position to capitalize on its exclusive brand.

“Today’s discriminating coffee connoisseurs want to know what they’re drinking,” said Falconer. “Only products with the label ‘100% MAUI Origin Coffee’ ensure that you’re drinking coffee unique to this geographic region.”

With a careful eye on quality control, the company grows and harvests Arabica coffees, including Maui Mokka, Yellow Caturra, Red Catuai and Guatemalan Typica.

“These exceptional coffee varieties have been field tested for superior quality specific to West Maui,” said Falconer, a third-generation farmer who was instrumental in the genesis of Kaanapali Estate Coffee Company founded in the early 1990s.

The opportunities and challenges associated with the distribution of its coffee products to wholesalers and coffee brokers worldwide led to the establishment of MauiGrown Coffee Distributors LLC in 2008. 

Under this agreement between Falconer and Kaanapali Coffee Services, a subsidiary of Kaanapali Land Management Corp., they hope to expand the company’s coffee distribution in the Mainland U.S., as well as to Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.

The company sells both green coffee in bulk (minimum order 100 pounds) and roasted coffees.

The public can taste the fruits of their labor at the MauiGrown Coffee Company Store at 277 Lahainaluna Road next to the historic Pioneer Mill smokestack.

“Our customers really appreciate learning about MauiGrown’s 100 percent Maui Origin brand,” said Jeff Ferguson, MauiGrown Coffee Company Store manager. 

“We always have samples brewing of the different varieties of coffee grown in this region, and both visitors and residents enjoy tasting this exceptional and diverse pure West Maui coffee.”

From Oct. 22-24, MauiGrown Coffee Company Store will celebrate its third anniversary with a MauiGrown Coffee Harvest Festival. 

This public event will be an opportunity to celebrate this year’s harvest, a time to enjoy Lahaina’s plantation renaissance and to taste MauiGrown Coffee.

Store hours are 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. For more information on MauiGrown Coffee, visit www.MauiGrownCoffee.com or call (808) 357-1204.