Another agricultural product that played a major role in Hawaii was sugar. Back in the 1950s, there were over 20,000 acres of agricultural land in the North Shore area. Roughly half were pineapple fields and the other half sugar cane fields. One of the major sugar employers in the North Shore area was the Waialua Sugar Company. When the company was in full swing, they employed nearly 2,000 workers. However, due to rising production costs and flat sugar prices, the Waialua sugar mill shut down in 1996 after nearly a hundred years in operation.

Many of the early pineapple and sugar plantation laborers were from foreign countries such as China, Japan and the Phillipines. Plantation villages or camps were set up to house the workers and their families. These villages reflected the different cultures the laborers brought with them. In fact, many cultural aspects of these plantation villages have endured and influence life in Hawaii today.