How a Hilo Grocer Put Local Food and IMO on the Shelf

0:00 Moderator: Then after that there will be a little more housekeeping and another presentation.

0:13 Derek Kurisu: First of all, thank you for the honor of inviting me here today. And in fact Vince is an amazing guy because I need to see one guy more excited about what he's doing. I actually served on a task force together and man he's like funny and I saw the serious side of him today. But anyway, you know I'm not a farmer, I'm not a scientist, but I'm a retailer, I work in a supermarket, KTA Super Stores. And you know having an agriculture degree and also having to meet a lot of farmers and being born and raised on a field of plantation,

0:52 understand the hardship of being a farmer. I understand the importance of me and my job in helping you sell your products. And it becomes very important. You see about 35 years ago I spent six hours sitting outside of KTA watching all the customers come in and come out and wondering why did they come shopping? You know is it because of the price? Is it because of service? Is it because of sanitation? Is it because of the variety? I mean, why did they come to KTA? Then I saw some of the men out in the parking lot just perspiring and sweating and the wives in

1:30 the store talking story with their friends. I saw some of the kids, you know, holding onto their mom's pants and, you know, crying because they want something in the store, just nagging and the mom is just walking out. Then I realized something. I I realized that it was more than that. People came shopping because they have a problem. What I'm gonna feed my family tonight? What I'm gonna bring to the party tomorrow? What I'm gonna make for lunch for my kid that's going on excursion? You know, I started to really think about all this and then I also started to think,

2:08 wow, you know, people's lifestyle and stuff has started to change, you know? And what I'm here for at KTA is not just selling products, but it's solving people's problems. And, you know, today there's a major change and shift, and people want to eat more healthy. You know, they understand a little bit more about health. And I've got to provide that for them, because if I don't do that, you know, I'm only creating more problems for them, because they're going to have to go somewhere else and shop. and you know that understanding of solving people's problems is so important

2:47 so you know and I tell a lot of students or out there when I speak to them you know whether you're a doctor you're a lawyer a carpenter you're a mechanic you know or you're a farmer you gotta think about it whatever you do is it your job solving someone's problems and when you think about being a farmer right? Is it your job about solving someone's problem? I think you guys are all here because you guys want to see a little bit more natural products on the market, right? Solving people's problems. Understand the importance of a customer

3:23 and my job of solving people's problems created the KTA private label called Mountain Apple Brand. You know during the fall of the sugar industry, an island economic disaster was about to happen. Tony Taniguchi, my leader who passed away several years ago, you know actually when I go back you know on this layer I always put out this picture you know. I put out a picture because he was such a mentor to me and I always tell the group that it represents all your mentors and all of your ancestors that made what it is today so I put it on here representing everybody thank you okay so he told me I

4:05 needed to help the plantation people when the sugar plantation goes under you know I didn't think it was ever gonna happen because you know I was raised on a plantation, I saw all these big trucks, the big, you know, all these acres, I mean look, sugar cane all the way to the end right and I said there's no way it's gonna happen but he passed away and the sugar industry collapsed I was motivated by this obligation to make something happen so 25 years ago Mountain Apple Brand was created without any funding and I remember there were people with hundreds of thousands of dollars you know and I was

4:45 there without anything except the desire to help and was really really sincere and serious and did it all with a handshake. No offensive paperwork or just with a handshake. Today we have about 45 different business partners and about 210 products and every product is either locally grown or manufactured, helping to create jobs and revitalize our economy. You know, Mountain Apple Brand has one supplier. Now I learned this while actually working for KTA in the beginning and also having a degree. Mountain Apple Brand has one supplier supplying one product.

5:26 Now that became so so important for the growth of this label. This prevented local farmers as well as manufacturers to compete within KTA. This enabled them to focus on producing the highest quality product and become an expert in the product they produce. That became socially important. This also makes them aware that our competition is not items that it's locally grown or produced, but what has been imported to the island. So today I can really proudly say between 90 to 97% of my leafy produce in all our stores is all locally grown.

6:11 I never bought one carton banana from the mainland. You know, we had some problems with banana. I just went without bananas. And you know, it's so funny that people kind of understood what I was trying to do there. And I thought that was important. My beef right now, from the past five years, from about 5% of my beef sales are local. We're up to 45%. percent so you know that's cool so but this is what about right we have certain ranchers i want processors we're working together to kind of build an industry

6:47 um we also try to um know what what what we want to i want every Mountain Apple Brand product to succeed and not compete with established products so you know my jams and jellies they are sold in the bakery. My kimchi and pickles are sold in the seafood department. My hot dog buns are sold with the hot dog. You know, I try to, as much as possible, keep it away from all these other commodities to give it a fair chance or a better chance of being exposed and sold. But also try to create value out of the product, making it different and unique. It's kind of like interesting because, you know,

7:27 Because you know, just a couple days ago, I was in Hollywood, I was the keynote speaker at this manufacturing conference. And I told the manufacturers, okay, we got like a, I think a two million dollar grant, right? For all these manufacturers. I said, you know, it's so important because you've got to use this money, you've got to try to support locals, because local agriculture will not thrive unless manufacturing is there. because we got to utilize, and this is what Mountain Apple, we try to utilize all of our abundance products, or we try to utilize all the grade B's and

8:03 off-grades, and you know when you do that your grade A becomes, puts it to another level. So I addressed them in talking to them about you know making sure that you you survive but you also try to use local products we also try to create value-added products making it different and unique let me give you an example you know there's all kinds of sweet bread on the shelf but you know Mountain Apple Brand sweet bread is a little different we have coconut we have things like macadamia nut you know so when you when you put this in the oven

8:42 oh it's so so good you know it just explodes right you know so you know be different you know when people eat cookies they feel guilty of eating cookies sweet this and that and crumbs all over the dress no problem Mountain Apple Brand cookie nuggets it's so small they just keep on popping in your mouth next thing you know they eat the whole package now my most recent product and this is called um, Dakine chips. Okay, not this guy, not that guy, it's Dakine. Okay. Now, Dakine chips is kind of interesting because it uses local potatoes, but unfortunately,

9:29 you can get the price down, so I have some regular potato chips mixed up with the local potato chips. Now, the difference is, potato chips usually have like a three month shelf life. But I sell this in the produce, and I make sure that it doesn't, it sells and turns within three weeks. So when you eat a chip that's fresh, or anything to eat that's fresh, a higher quality, it's always gonna taste better. And I sell it in the produce department, away from all the other chips, number one. Number two, because produce people understand the importance of turns and shelf life. Yeah, so, that kind.

10:16 Yes, Mountain Apple Brand products are definitely unique, and every product has a story. Here I brought you a couple of examples. You know, at one time, there was this big problem with the waiawī, invasive species in the forest and everything else. And, you know, we have this HI-5 thing where people redeem their bottles and all that, what do you do with a cap? I got a solution. I got Toshi's Fish Scaler. Okay? It's made with waiawī stick and it has bottle caps on it. It's great. And with a small sign telling the story

10:57 how this thing came about and along with a handle here. And you know this thing probably costs about maybe five cents to create but I sell it for $3.97. The Japanese tourist buys it. I mean for me It's an educational thing where I'm able to talk to students. You know, I go into the classroom and tell them about turning waste into value. You know? So I say, hey, five cents, $3.97. The Japanese tourist, ooh, good, good, good to take back to Japan. You know, when my son left and went off to college,

11:35 my wife refused to have me purchase hot dog, hamburger buns, and all that, because you know I end up throwing away because it's only her and I, right? So I was thinking to myself, well, you know, I gotta think out of the box, and I gotta do something that's totally different. So I came up with any kind of taro bread or any kind of sweet bread. Why it is so important is that you want hot dog buns, you cut it this way. You want hamburger buns, you cut it this way. You want rolls, you cut it this way. You can make any kind with one bread. So now she allows me to buy this and I can have buns.

12:12 So you know, it's a matter of being innovative, creative, thinking out of box, thinking, well, how can I solve someone's problems, right? So one day, Dr. Park wanted to talk to me about his Korean natural farming. I really wasn't too interested, but it's Dr. Park, so I'm with Dr. Park, right? I'm not going to turn down Dr. Park. Oh yeah, Dr. Park, please come. I want to speak to you. In my mind, I was like only 50% excited. So he came to talk to me. And in that time, before that, I heard something about discovering natural farming from a good friend.

13:04 David Wong, Jr. helped me launch. he actually helped me launch the Mountain Apple Brand concept when he owned Excelsior Dairy here in Hilo. So David told me he was using this amazing method of raising plants and animals from this Master Cho from Korea. So I said, oh, okay. So Dr. Park came, he lectured me about his IMO and the positive effects it had on growing healthy natural plants and healthy nutritional food. you know and at that time i looked at my body i said you know what maybe i gotta listen to dr

13:42 Park because you know he's a he's a physician and you know this and that and he was giving me this lecture that you know if you use this the plant gets more healthy and you know what dr park thought oh he just puts his expression in it and i'm over there and so i told dr park dr park if you believe in his stuff so much would you make a commercial a TV commercial with me and he said, sure, Derek. So then I knew that he would be willing to put his reputation on the line there. I said okay that's fantastic so we did a commercial together and that was fun but I also noticed my friend David Wong Jr.

14:25 started to focus on his health and be totally committed to Korean natural farming he said and I'm not sure it is exactly right but you know he is really like I thought that everything got to be precise and so I I I'm not sure what the word he said but he told me he he told me health problems are not always caused by what you're eating but but what you're eating eats I go wow you know that night I was drinking my wine I was thinking about it what I'm eating eats so you know whether it's like beef or what I'm drinking my wine really great

15:09 what would be the gravy right you know so man that really spoils my appetite so then I said oh wow you know it makes really a lot of sense then the truth test came when I brought the product home and had my retired school teacher wife use it on the flowers you know she works in the garden every day and you don't have a school teacher wife you don't understand what I'm talking about he died but I'm dead too you know what I mean I would hear it 20 years later how I killed her plants and all this and all something so anyway I brought them home and she put it on the

15:52 flowers and the flowers started to bloom, it started to flower. She was so happy and then that's how they go happy wife happy life right so I was totally convinced with what Dr. Park and all David Wong Jr and everybody's telling me I go wow okay I'm a believer so I believe in so much in IMO and I worked with Dr. Park to create IMOlizer. Yeah. Actually, I wanted to educate and promote the concept of Korean natural farming so when we put this on on the shelf I had handouts where people

16:37 could pick up and they could take home and understand what IMOlizer was all about, what Korean natural farming was all about. So you know the team started to really really sell you know and I and he goes you know I know everything flowers and I was kind of wondering whether it was all the marijuana girls or what but yeah But yeah, the thing did so well. I go, wow! You know? So we had signs, we had posters, and products sold, you know, really well. It sold really well. So from there I convinced Ace Hardware, another local company to sell this product.

17:15 So they had it in the store and it was really good. So it's called IMOlizer. And my intention was to sell IMOlizer and hopefully I will have Korean Natural Farming vegetables, fruits, eggs, chickens, hogs, products available at KTA.