STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1814

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 496

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Ways and Means and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred H.B. No. 496, H.D. 2, entitled:

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

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to protect Hawaii's māmaki tea industry.

Specifically, this measure:

(1) Prohibits the use of certain words 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; and

(2) Appropriates funds for one staff position for the Department of Agriculture to support enforcement of labeling regulations to protect Hawaii products.

Your Committees received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Hawaii Farm Bureau, and Hawaii Farmers Union.

Your Committees received written comments in opposition to this measure from Tea Chest Hawaii.

Your Committees received written comments on this measure from Hawaii Food Industry Association.

Your Committees find that the māmaki plant is native to the State, where it grows naturally at elevations of four hundred to six thousand feet. Your Committees further find that, to support the growing māmaki tea industry, this measure aims to protect Hawaii-grown māmaki tea by enforcing labeling requirements and allocating funds for a staff position to enforce these regulations.

Your Committees respectfully request that, if a Committee on Conference is convened to deliberate on this measure, the Committee on Conference consider the Department's proposed appropriation amount of $65,000 for the position of Measurement Standards Inspector V.

Your Committees have amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Ways and Means and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 496, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 496, H.D. 2, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Ways and Means and Commerce and Consumer Protection,

________________________________ JARRETT KEOHOKALOLE, Chair

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair