STAND. COM. REP. NO. 38

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 496

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems, to which was referred H.B. No. 496 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MĀMAKI TEA,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to impose certain labeling requirements for māmaki tea sold in the State.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture and Hawai‘i Farm Bureau.

Your Committee finds that māmaki is a plant that is endemic to Hawaii and used to make an herbal tea. Because māmaki tea is a growing agricultural commodity, the implementation of labeling requirements would ensure the viability of Hawaii-grown māmaki tea. This measure protects Hawaii-grown māmaki tea by establishing certain labeling requirements for māmaki tea products sold in the State to ensure that labels purporting that all or a portion of the māmaki tea was grown in Hawaii are true and accurate.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Prohibiting the use of certain words that can be used on the label of a consumer package that contains or includes tea or dried leaves from the plant Pipturus albidus, unless one hundred percent of the tea or dried leaves were grown in the State;

(2) Inserting language that appropriates an unspecified amount for staff positions for the Department of Agriculture to support enforcement of labeling regulations;

(3) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider an appropriation amount of $65,000 for one full-time equivalent position for the Department of Agriculture.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 496, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 496, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Consumer Protection & Commerce.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture & Food Systems,

____________________________

KIRSTIN KAHALOA, Chair