Talk about gentleman farmers. Up until they formalized their partnership and incorporated their farm business in 1995, Clyde Fukuyama and Melvin Matsuda were used to doing business with a handshake. In fact they still do some business that way today.

Both are third-generation family farmers who grew up as neighbors in the close knit North Shore enclave of Kahuku. Both had other options before coming back to work their respective families farms in the early 1980's. Fukuyama had been helping farmers as a junior extension agent with the University of Hawaii. Matsuda had been a karate instructor on the Mainland.

In 1985, the two were offered the opportunity to grow watermelons in Australia. Because they had grown up together and knew each other well, it was their first handshake deal. Fukuyama says, "Mean while we were just farmers. None of this signing or binding contracts. It was quite an adventure."