Blaine and Beth Apo pose with bags of their hot-selling Maui Crisps Wednesday afternoon in Kula. The Maui News MATTHEW THAYER photo
In just several hours Maui Crisps sold all of its nearly 1,000 bags of crispy beef jerky chips during the Made In Maui County Festival last year, leaving people hungry for more.
So this year, owners Blaine and Beth Apo are hoping to more than triple their production amount this week in their second time at the festival.
“We are working 24-hour shifts just to get it done,” Blaine Apo said on Wednesday.
After last year’s festival, the demand for the thinly sliced pieces of dried extra crispy beef has not stopped, the Upcountry husband-and-wife team said.
Now, they sell around 3,500 bags of the jerky chip treats each month at the family-owned Ilima Shell on Kaahumanu Avenue in Kahului. When they began two years ago, maybe two bags were sold a day.
“It never stopped. We always run out,” Blaine Apo said.
Selling it at “Ilima Shell, out of a Ziplock bag; sandwich Ziplock bags, that’s how we started,” the 33-year-old Apo recalled of developing the product two years ago. “Unreal how to see it, how it went from that to today.”
It is this type of response that festival organizers — the Maui Chamber of Commerce and Maui County Office of Economic Development — love to hear for all Maui County products. Maui Crisps will join more than 140 other Maui County vendors at the festival on Friday. The event is tailored for businesses and eager early shoppers. The festival is open again on Saturday, for the public festival day.
In addition to food and food trucks, there will be art, crafts, jewelry, fashion, gifts, home decor and collectibles. Last year, more than 10,000 people attended the festival.
“Not only does this event show case creative entrepreneurial spirit, but the festival is a true testament to the strong support for our business community,” said Pamela Tumpap, Maui Chamber of Commerce president. “We all want these dedicated businesses to succeed.”
Blaine Apo, too, is hoping for much success after he and his family invested thousands of dollars in a 3,600-square-foot production plant for the crisps in Waikapu. He had hoped to have it opened by now, but now its looks like it will be open around Thanksgiving.
It will be a welcome relief to have more production space because the business now crams into a 30-by-30-foot commercial kitchen at Ilima Shell. There, they have residential-sized dehydrators and one commercial-sized one. But, at the plant, there will be five commercial dehydrators.
The Apos hope to churn out around 20,000 bags of crisps per month for wholesale. They have received inquires to sell the crisps from local, state and national companies even as far away as the East Coast. Now, they make around 3,500 a month that sell out.
Along with the new plant, the Apos aim to expand their line of jerky crisps. Now they have the original, cracked pepper, Hawaiian chili, teriyaki, spicy teriyaki and furikake (Japanese dry seasoning for rice) flavors.
Blaine Apo said that when the chips go wholesale, the family is looking to keep the specialty ones such as the furikake and spicy teriyaki just on Maui at Ilima Shell.
Other flavors in development include an adobo-flavored crisp, a tofu crisp and a chile lime. (Adobo is seasoning popular in Filipino cooking, which includes vinegar.)
Also in the works and available for vendors and businesses to sample on Friday only will be the Apos’ gluten-free, grass-fed beef jerky chips, which will come from Maui Cattle Co. beef.
Asked why they thought their product has been so successful, Beth Apo said customers say “It’s easy to eat,” and “You don’t have to fight with it.”
Unlike regular beef jerky that can be chewy and tough to grind, the jerky chips, are just that, thin and easy to crunch like a chip.
Blaine Apo said the family stumbled upon the beef crisps by accident. He and his wife were looking at making pipikaula (salted and dried beef, thicker and softer than beef jerky) to sell at the gas station. But, in the process, they cut the meat crooked and thin and placed it in the dehydrator anyway. Out came the crisps.
“We tried and played around with it for a couple of months,” he said.
They started selling the crisps in Ziplock bags at Ilima Shell in September 2014. They continued to work on the pipikaula, but soon the beef crisps took over the demand.
Now, the Apos work on the crisps along with their production manager Shannon “Baba” Cazimero and five to six employees from Ilima Shell.
Ilima Shell is owned by Paul Hanada. Beth Apo is his daughter, and she serves as president of that gas station. The Hanadas also own Aloha Shell Service at the intersection of Puunene and Kamehameha avenues in Kahului.
Blaine Apo said he is thankful for all the support he and his business have received. His product has been taken to Washington, D.C., for a “Hawaii on the Hill” event at the Capitol by the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce to show case island products.
Blaine Apo has appeared on local television to promote his product and the Made In Maui County Festival.
Local well-known chefs Isaac Bancaco , executive chef at Andaz Maui, and Kyle Kawakami of the Maui Fresh Streatery food truck have also used the crisps in their dishes.
Kawakami also will be at the Made In Maui Festival.
For more information and a list of vendors, see www.MadeInMauiCountyFestival.com.
* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.
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Shoppers Preview
1:30 to 6 p.m. Friday
$35 per person
Opening ceremonies at 5 p.m. Refreshments served
Tickets at Maui Arts & Cultural Center Box Office; (808) 242-SHOW and MauiArts.org
Free event parking at the MACC and at University of Hawaii Maui College paved parking lot on Wahinepio Avenue
Festival Day
8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday
At the gate, public admission $5; children 12 and under are free
Free parking at UH-Maui College grass parking lot. Enter through Wahinepio Avenue from Kaahumanu Avenue or South Papa Avenue. Only right-hand turns into parking area.
Parking available at UH-Maui College paved lot after Swap Meet ends at 1 p.m.
No left-hand turns from Wahinepio Avenue during festival hours.
Handicapped parking at the MACC. Seniors and handicapped persons may also be dropped off in front of MACC’s main gate even if lot is full.
Free shuttle service from War Memorial gym to MACC. First shuttle at 8 a.m. Last shuttle departs MACC at 4:45 p.m.
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