WAILUKU, Hawaii – Fair organizers in Hawaii have said they hope to keep their events running amid rising shipping rates.

Organizers met last week with government officials and decided to draft a proposal urging Gov. David Ige to identify their fairs as a “purpose for public good” so wharf fees can be waived, The Maui News reported (http://bit.ly/2roVmPo ). Wharf fees are charged by shipping terminals when goods move through the locations.

“It was a very constructive and successful discussion,” said Avery Chumbley, president of the Maui Fair Alliance. “It helped us identify each other’s concerns and problems, and reach a solution that would get us to a commitment to be able to continue to do the fairs.”

In March, E.K. Fernandez Shows cancelled the Maui County Carnival because shipping rates have doubled over the past decade.

Company president Scott Fernandez said he had to pay $500,000 last year to ship the carnival’s equipment — a cost that he said would have increased this year.

Fernandez committed to the 95th Maui Fair, but said its future is also in jeopardy with shipping issues and a ban on imported wild animals.

“We absolutely want to do long-term contracts,” he said. “I just have to wait to see how everything turns out. … I think we’ll all get there.”

Shipping rates rose more than 40 per cent in the past three years, Fernandez said. The company has absorbed increased costs since 2011 and has refrained from raising ride prices.

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This story corrects that the fair organizers want waiver of wharf fees, not shipping fees.

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Information from: The Maui News, http://www.mauinews.com