Final sugar ship sails into sunset

LIHU‘E — The official end of Kaua‘i processed sugar officially came around 4 p.m. Monday, when the transport ship Moku Pahu left Nawiliwili Harbor with the last Gay & Robinson sugar from the final harvest.

The total tonnage was around 16,000, or around a half-load for the Moku Pahu, a ship owned by Hawaiian Sugar & Transportation Cooperative, an agricultural company.

The ship is a bulk cargo carrier — as opposed to a container ship, such as Matson Navigation Company’s container ships — and when the cooperative is not using the vessel to transport sugar, it time-charters the vessel to third parties to transport goods worldwide.

Now, it will only transport sugar from the remaining plantation in the state, HC&S on Maui.

It has carried cargo as varied as scrap metal, fertilizer, coal and also various grains, in addition to raw sugar. Matson manages the vessel, said Linda Howe, spokesperson for Matson parent company Alexander & Baldwin, Inc.

The Moku Pahu (literally “push boat”) can carry up to 34,000 tons of sugar or equivalent dry weight of other goods, she said.

In addition to the well-chronicled end of sugar on Kaua‘i, the last loads of sugar and molasses hauled by A&B subsidiary Kaua‘i Commercial Company means the KCC drivers hopefully can be assigned other duties, Howe said.

The end of sugar on the island “does impact hauling operations on Kaua‘i,” she said.

“You could say it’s the end of Gay & Robinson sugar because the last harvest left the island,” said E. Alan Kennett, G&R manager.

“I feel really sad. It was quite a traumatic day,” said Kennett. “It was a very sad day.”

But the reality is that G&R had sustained several consecutive years of financial losses that made it impossible to remain in sugar, and only as the result of some other business decisions will G&R be able to remain in agriculture at all, he said.