Milk drinkers on O'ahu, Maui and Kaua'i are once again being treated to fresh Hawai'i milk after recent years in which a string of local dairy shutdowns resulted in a 100 percent supply of milk imported from the Mainland.

Big Island-based Island Dairy, one of only two dairy businesses left in the state, earlier this week began supplying all Foodland Super Market and Sack N Save stores with milk under the new Hawaii's Fresh brand.

The move represents a relatively small, though significant, rebound for Hawai'i's dairy industry, which as recently as 1980 supplied the entire state.

But there hasn't been locally produced milk on O'ahu for a year, and it's been more than a decade since Maui and Kaua'i had local milk.

"We forget what island fresh milk tastes like," said Jeri Kahana, commodities branch program manager for the state Department of Agriculture, who in past travels has brought fresh milk from the Big Island to O'ahu in her luggage.

Since 1999, five dairies on O'ahu and three on the Big Island have closed, in part due to economic struggles with high feed, shipping and land costs.

Two Big Island dairies are all that's left of the industry, and up until now had supplied only the Big Island.

Island Dairy is starting small, supplying about 5 percent of its total production for export off the Big Island. But company owner Bahman Sadeghi said that could grow if there is enough consumer demand and he can expand locally produced feed for cows.

"We hope consumers will support their local milk again," he said.

Sadeghi, who has been a Hawai'i dairy farmer for more than two decades and also imports milk from the Mainland with another business, Hawaii Intermodal Tank, has been ramping up local production.

Over the last year, Island Dairy doubled its number of cows, added solar power to the farm and began growing corn and alfalfa to replace expensive feed from the Mainland. Such moves helped make it viable to raise milk production to almost 100,000 gallons a month, up from 20,000 gallons a month before the changes.

The state also is helping the industry and other livestock producers with a $6 million livestock feed subsidy program begun last year. The two-year program provides a maximum $250,000 annual reimbursement for livestock feed per qualifying farm.

The Big Island's other dairy, Cloverleaf Dairy, is at maximum production capacity, according to owner Ed Boteilho, who said he's producing close to 100,000 gallons a month and supplies about half the Big Island's milk.

"I'm not interested in going off island until the island need is met," said Boteilho.

The Agriculture Department estimates that the two dairies satisfy about 95 percent of the Big Island's milk consumption, including schools.

Sadeghi said he doesn't intend to divert any local milk from Big Island consumers to supply other islands.

Kahana said she's hopeful attempts to expand the industry will succeed. "It's a start," she said.

Sheryl Toda, spokeswoman for Foodland and Sack N Save, said Hawaii's Fresh milk, which hit the shelves Wednesday, initially is available in gallon containers, but will also come in half-gallon containers starting in the spring.

"It's the freshest, most wholesome milk in Hawai'i," she said. "It goes from the farm to the table in less than four days."

A gallon of Hawaii's Fresh milk is retailing for $8.99 with Foodland's customer loyalty discount, or about $2 more than imported milk brands but $2 to $3 less than organic milk.

Most milk imported from the Mainland, while it can be characterized as being produced locally because it is repasteurized in Hawai'i, cannot be labeled with the state's "Island Fresh" origin mark unless it contains at least 90 percent local milk.

Repasteurizing, or reprocessing, adds about eight days to the age of imported Mainland milk, which can be between 25 to 30 days old by the time it reaches its shelf expiration date.