Made In Hawaii Ambassador
Derek Kurisu’s vision is to have products from Hawaii available throughout the world. Who better to serve as head cheerleader for this weekend’s Made in Hawaii Festival?
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Derek Kurisu in the Pacific Club kitchen with executive chef
Eric Leterc
It’s hard to be serious about Derek Kurisu. There’s definitely a serious side to him, being a successful businessman and community leader. But his lively, outgoing personality almost gives him an impish image. You never know what he’s going to do or say.
Like the time he sprinkled magic dust on his audience to transform their thinking. Or, put on Disney Mouseketeer ears to make a point about imagination.
You have to be ready for anything.
The wild, unpredictable Kurisu punctuates his sentences with humor and expressiveness. But you never forget his messages.
It is this spirit that prevails as we meet Kurisu to talk about this weekend’s Made in Hawaii Festival and his business success. Within minutes, there is a revelation.
Derek Kurisu personifies what the Made in Hawaii show is all about.
It’s all about entrepreneurial aloha spirit.
The Hawaii Food Industry Association (HFIA), producer of the Made in Hawaii show, couldn’t have picked a better ambassador for this year’s event. Kurisu, executive vice president of KTA Super Stores on the Big Island, is a major cheerleader for Hawaii commodities.
The Made in Hawaii show is a snippet of a big vision.
“My vision is to have products from Hawaii available throughout the world,” says Kurisu, HFIA chairman. “You see a Mexican food section in the supermarket, the Oriental section; why not a section with Hawaii products?”
Is he clouded by too much pixie dust? Kurisu laughs and assures us it is not an impossible dream.
Kurisu has a good time planning the Made in Hawaii
Festival with Gerald Shintaku of Kraft Foods and Joni
Marcello of Meadow Gold Dairies.
The Made in Hawaii show’s amazing growth over the past 10 years is testimony of the possibility.
The first Made in Hawaii Festival in 1995 showcased 61 exhibitor booths. Last year, the festival featured more than 420 booths and attracted 33,000 people. An even larger turnout is expected Friday-Sunday, Aug. 18-20, at Neal S. Blaisdell Exhibition Hall and Arena.
Fifty new exhibitors will be involved. About 25 percent of the exhibitors are from the Neighbor Islands.
Among the new products is a papaya-guava nectar called PAVA. Kurisu is involved in guiding this locally made juice to market. It was developed by students of his alma mater, University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture. The enterprising students made use of discarded off-grade papaya and guava not sold in stores.
“It’s based on the plantation principle of turning waste into something of value,” Kurisu says. “A little imagination is helping agriculture.”
Kurisu with wife Georganne and son Blake
Get a taste of PAVA at the Meadow Gold Dairies booth, and check out the carton design by Big Island artist Eddie Yamamoto.
With values rooted in Hawaii’s plantation heritage, Kurisu, 55, seems an anachronism. He is clearly a future thinker, but draws upon old-fashioned rural values to keep things real.
Kurisu was born and raised at Hakalau Sugar Plantation, 50 miles outside of Hilo. He has worked for 40 years in the retail food business, with 37 of those years at KTA Super Stores. He is responsible for creating Mountain Apple Brand products, a private label that comprises almost 300 items grown or made in Hawaii and 80 business partnerships.
About 90 percent of KTA’s leafy vegetables
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