STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1251

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 496

H.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Economic Development and Tourism and Agriculture and Environment, 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:

(1) Prohibit 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;

(2) Require nonconsumer packages that contain tea or dried leaves from the plant Pipturus albidus grown in the State and introduced into state or interstate commerce to bear a label using certain words; and

(3) Appropriate funds to the Department of Agriculture for a measurement standard inspector position.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture and Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau.

Your Committees find that māmaki (Pipturus albidus) is a plant that is endemic to Hawaii, the only place where māmaki naturally grows. Your Committees further find that māmaki, due to its cultural significance and medicinal properties, is growing in popularity in local and global markets, where it is often sold as a tea. While the rise in māmaki consumption has allowed small farms to scale up agricultural production, these small growers lack adequate labeling protections commonly provided to other valuable agricultural crops in the State, such as macadamia nuts and coffee. To further protect local agriculture, this measure establishes labeling requirements and provides funding for an inspector position.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development and Tourism and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 496, H.D. 2, and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committees on Ways and Means and Commerce and Consumer Protection.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Economic Development and Tourism and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ LYNN DECOITE, Chair