Farm sales of Hawai'i fruit fell 2.4 percent last year to $105 million, with the declines concentrated in pineapple, papaya and guava sales.

While pineapple remains king of Hawai'i's fruit crop with 69 percent of total fruit acreage and 75 percent of the total fruit value, sales fell 4.6 percent to $79.3 million last year amid high costs and foreign competition. The state's pineapple crop is expected to continue falling as Del Monte Fresh Produce phases out its Hawai'i pineapple operations in 2008.

Sales of papaya, Hawai'i's second largest fruit crop, dropped 9 percent to $11.2 million, according to figures released yesterday by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Irregular rainfall and problems with disease posed problems for papaya growers, according to the report. Guava sales dipped 3 percent to $1.1 million.

Those declines were partly offset by higher sales of bananas and tropical specialty fruit. Sales of bananas, the state's third largest fruit crop, rose 14 percent to $9.2 million, helped by favorable weather.

Reach Sean Hao at shao@honoluluadvertiser.com.