New Wahiawā Value-Added Product Development Center Helps Businesses Scale Up

Miriam Olivas, owner of Barrio Café, has the opportunity to use the center to produce her vegan chorizo. Photo: Olivier Koning

Imagine a manufacturing facility like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory—a place where innovation, education and technology intersect to incubate new food products and bolster Hawai‘i’s agricultural industry. But instead of turning out candy made by little orange dudes, it’s focused on the next hit local snack or locally grown crop.

At the new 33,000-square-foot Wahiawā Value-Added Product Development Center—where entrepreneurs have access to commercial-scale production, storage and packaging equipment normally available only to large businesses—even the most off-the-wall product ideas can become reality. In partnership with Leeward Community College and the state of Hawai‘i, the center is the first of its kind on O‘ahu and the second in Hawai‘i after the Maui Food Technology Center. Participants in the center’s inaugural cohort are preparing to take their products to market this summer, with the hopes of selling their foods at stores across the state.

1001 California Ave., Wahiawā, leeward.hawaii.edu/wvapdc/

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