Business Monday: Organic Kona coffee farm for sale for $4.8 million
Thirty-five of the 78 acres are dedicated to Kona-certified organic coffee, milled and roasted on-site in a fully off-grid operation.
A celebration of the history and heritage of the Kona coffee industry on Hawai‘i Island is underway with the 55th anniversary of the Kona Coffee Festival.
From the coffee-growing slopes of Hualālai and Mauna Loa to historic Kailua Village, the festival connects attendees with the people and places that have shaped Kona’s coffee heritage for generations.
Amid these celebrations, Kona Rainforest Certified Organic Estate, one of Kona’s largest certified organic coffee estates in Captain Cook, is for sale with a price tag of $4.77 million. The listing includes the turnkey business.
News of this listing comes as the multigenerational farm and coffee business Lions Gate also is on the market.
The Kona Rainforest listing said 35 of the 78 acres are dedicated to Kona-certified organic coffee, milled and roasted on-site in a fully off-grid operation with a 150,000-gallon catchment tank.
Real estate agent Maile Woodhall is handling the sale of the farm. She said the farm was previously on the market for a year under a different agent. She recently took on the listing.
“We’ve had a lot of interest,” Woodhall said. “We’re definitely in discussion with some big players right now that are interested, but no formal offers.”
The farm is one of the larger Kona coffee operations that is certified organic by the USDA.
The farm has been in operation for more than 20 years. It initially started with five acres and expanded over time to 35 certified acres.
To be certified organic, Woodhall said the product has to be approved by a third-party certifier, according to the National Organic Program.
“A farm has to comply with their regulations, which would be like similar to food safety or other types of certification compliance, such as like fair trade or good rainforest alignment, where there’s like set regulations for them to comply,” Woodhall said.
There’s a huge marketing opportunity for producers that are certified organic with Kona Rainforest, Woodhall said.
When farms like this change hands, the question is whether the organic acreage and processing stay in Kona coffee.
Lit Uasriyoppiya, who has been working at the farm since 2018, is in charge of the coffee roasting, dry milling, processing, inventory and order fulfillment.
“Pretty much anything once it hits the parchment form and it goes out the door, it’s my responsibility,” he said.
Uasriyoppiya said the farm has 35,000 to 36,000 coffee trees. During the 2025-26 season, the farm produced just over 100,000 pounds.
This year, Uasriyoppiya said they have roughly picked 35,000 pounds. Roughly, for September, the farm’s average operating expense was $49,000.
In addition to the coffee being sold online, Uasriyoppiya said the farm also has a CropShare program where customers can sign up to get coffee delivered monthly or quarterly.
They also supply their drip, espresso and retail coffee to Kaya’s Coffee in Kealakekua.
While the organic Kona Coffee is unique, Uasriyoppiya it’s not the farm’s only selling point.
“We just want to produce the best coffee we can and sell it,” he said. “It’s processed here. It’s roasted here. It’s packaged here.”
Uasriyoppiya thinks the whole operation is special because it includes an 8,000-square-foot building that has everything included for processing coffee.
In his opinion, the main selling point of the farm is its view, which overlooks the south portion of the Big Island to the Pacific Ocean.
With the Kona Coffee Festival underway, Uasriyoppiya thinks it’s important to keep that heritage alive “to make sure that it’s still growing and it’s still specialty coffee.”
