STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1525

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.C.R. No. 69
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Agriculture, to which was referred H.C.R.
No. 69 entitled: 

     "HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF
     AGRICULTURE TO DEVELOP AND IMPLEMENT A FRUIT FLY FREE ZONE
     FOR ELIMINATING THE QUARANTINE BARRIER IMPOSED BY THE FOUR
     SPECIES OF FRUIT FLIES FOUND IN HAWAII,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this concurrent resolution is to request the
Department of Agriculture, in cooperation with federal and state
agencies and private organizations, to implement a fruit fly free
zone to determine if this is an effective way to address
quarantine barriers to marketing of Hawaii's crops outside the
State.

     The Department of Agriculture supports this resolution and
the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources,
University of Hawaii at Manoa supports the need of the State to
address the quarantine barrier to exporting of Hawaii's fruit
crops.

     Your Committee finds that four fruit fly species have cause
serious damage to fruit and vegetable crops and to the state's
economy due to guarantine barrier to marketing of Hawaii's crops
nationally and internationally.

     There are currently three primary ways of addressing the
quarantine barrier issue:

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1525
                                 Page 2

 
     (1)  Eradication:  destroy all four fruit fly species on
          all islands;

     (2)  Post-harvest treatments:  disinfest fruits of fruit fly
          eggs and larvae; or

     (3)  Fruit fly free zone:  create areas or district zones in
          Hawaii kept free of fruit flies.

     The eradication method is extremely expensive, with an
estimated cost of $1.0 billion to eradicate all four species of
fruit flies on all islands.  Researchers from the United States
Department of Agriculture and University of Hawaii and private
organizations have been developing research on post-harvest
commodity treatment measures and the research is ongoing.

     Your Committee further finds that the fruit fly free zone
method has not yet been fully implemented.  This concurrent
resolution requests the Department of Agriculture to implement a
fruit fly free zone to determine whether or not this is an
effective way to address quarantine barriers.

     Your Committee has amended this concurrent resolution by
adding Puna, Hawaii, as the location for the Department of
Agriculture's fruit fly free zone pilot project.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Agriculture that is attached to this report, your
Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 69,
as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the
Committee on Finance, in the form attached hereto as H.C.R. No.
69, H.D. 1.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Agriculture,



                                   ______________________________
                                   FELIPE P. ABINSAY, JR., Chair