State officials yesterday granted a Big Island grower permission to import 300,000 mature orchid plants from Taiwan without having to first go through a standard two-month quarantine.

Winning Orchids of Mountain View sought the quarantine exemption after an accidental power loss in September caused the loss of 300,000 plants. The power loss, caused by an automobile hitting a power pole, prevented the orchid grower from closing greenhouse shades or keeping plants cool.

As a result, Winning Orchids, the state's largest orchid grower, lost an estimated $2 million in plants damaged by prolonged sun exposure and high temperatures. The quarantine exemption is needed because Winning Orchids needs the replacement Taiwan plants as soon as possible to keep customers and remain in operation, according to the company's application with the state Department of Agriculture. In addition, the state does not have facilities to quarantine large quantities of plants for so long.

The effort to bring in such a large shipment of adult orchid plants from Taiwan comes after a multiyear effort by the state's orchid industry to ban imports of potted Taiwan orchids. Local growers worry Taiwanese imports will jeopardize the state's $24 million orchid industry because Hawai'i growers wouldn't be able to compete with Taiwan growers who receive large government subsidies and have lower land and labor costs.

Hawai'i growers also fear imports could bring plant-eating thrips and other insect pests into the Islands.

The state has permitting, quarantine and other procedures in place aimed prevent the introduction of new pests and disease. However, these aren't perfect. It's thought that stinging caterpillars, the coqui frog, the Erythrina gall wasp and other unwanted guests arrived in Hawai'i via commercial shipments of plants for nurseries and other businesses.

In voting unanimously to grant Winning Orchids a quarantine exemption yesterday, the state Board of Agriculture placed other measures in place to mitigate the risk of introducing new pests. That includes requirements that the orchids be shipped with bare roots, treated with pesticide and regularly inspected, among other things.

Winning Orchids will pay for Hawai'i officials to fly to Taiwan to inspect the plants before they're shipped. Additionally, the imported plants will be isolated at a Winning Orchids greenhouse for at least two months before they can be sold, said agriculture department spokeswoman Janelle Saneishi.

Normally, imported plants remain in a sealed state-run quarantine facility for at least two months.

The exemption granted to Winning Orchids does not open the door for others to bypass standard quarantine practices, Saneishi said.

Any similar application "would have to be taken on a case-by-case basis," she said. "It's not a blanket thing."

Peter Neifert, owner of Olomana Orchids in Waikane, said he hoped the new procedures will prevent any new pests from arriving in Hawai'i.

"That's the No. 1 thing," he said. "A lot of the pests we've got here came in from other places.

"In anybody's book, 300,000 orchids are a lot of plants."

Winning Orchids owner Marco Chen was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.