Pineapple canning began in Hawaii in 1892 and in Malaya at about the same time. From then on, production rose dramatically, creating employment and money for many people in the tropics.
The earliest recorded planting of pineapple in Hawaii was in 1813 by Francisco de Paula Marin. The need to preserve pineapples for distant consumers was the original idea of canning the fruit.
The introduction of canning to the Hawaiian Islands early in the twentieth century provided American and European markets with the exotic taste of pineapple year-round.
The US canning industry grew during the nineteenth century often East Coast and its primary stimulus was food spoilage and the time required for transportation from the site of production to the marketplace.
J. D. Ackerman and E. Muller attempted the first commercial canning in 1882 at Kona but abandoned the venture due to lack of market response.
More successful was John Emmeluth from Cincinnati, who began canning pineapples in 1889 on Oahu and shipping them to Victoria, British Columbia, New York and Boston.
The modern pineapple industry dates from 1900, when a group of Californian farmers formed a colony at Wahiawa Oahu and under leadership of Byron O. Clark began raising a number of crops, including pineapples.
In 1903, Jim Dole’s first batch of canned pineapples filled 1,893 cases. Then next year this figure shot up to 8,810 cases; the following year to 25,000 cases. In 1906, he built a new canning facility with warehouse in Honolulu and his company invented machines to streamline the pineapples canning, including feeder and slicer to cut fruit into uniform shapes and sizes.
Pineapple canning, became the territory’s second largest industry by 1920. In 1922, James Dole purchased nearly the entire island of Lanai, making it the largest pineapple plantation in the world.
Pineapple canning in history
