Commercial pineapple cultivation on Maui wound down primarily due to soaring domestic land and labor costs, increased global competition from cheaper international producers in Latin America and Asia, and changing corporate economic strategies. Massive agricultural operations found it increasingly difficult to remain profitable under high Hawaiian operating expenses when foreign markets could produce and ship fruit at a fraction of the cost. Consequently, major plantation companies transitioned their business models away from labor-intensive farming toward higher-yielding real estate development, resort management, and tourism.