The state's fourth-largest private landowner, Alexander & Baldwin Inc., plans to intensify efforts to sell unproductive Hawai'i land under an updated five-year strategic plan.

A&B's land-sale strategy involves marketing property as estates for wealthy individuals, and is one of several initiatives to improve company earnings — along with increasing local sugar production, cutting costs at subsidiary Matson Navigation Co. and exploring expanded Matson service in China.

The company discussed its updated strategic plan in a conference call with investors and Wall Street analysts yesterday.

Honolulu-based A&B said it has begun to prepare a "small percentage" of its nearly 90,000 acres of mostly agricultural land in Hawai'i for sale in an effort that it said could have significant financial impact for the firm.

Stanley Kuriyama, CEO of A&B's real estate subsidiary, said the property to be sold is "non-core" land with high value that isn't used for agriculture and isn't appropriate for urbanization.

This real estate, Kuriyama said in the conference call, would be positioned for sale to investors seeking residential estates.

"These are usually wealthy individuals — often from the Mainland, sometimes from foreign countries, sometimes from Hawai'i — who want a large estate," he said. "They may want to put up a home or two ... to own a large piece of Hawai'i. That's your typical buyer."

A&B on its Web site is already marketing some land on Maui and Kaua'i, including 37 acres of Nahiku property in East Maui, as opportunities for buyers to create a "personal paradise."

Kuriyama declined to quantify how much non-core land is being positioned for sale, but said it's a limited but important program that the company will pursue over the strategic period through 2011.

A&B historically has sold non-core land, but now is trying to take advantage of the dramatic increase in Hawai'i real estate values over the past several years and plow sale proceeds into commercial real estate investments.

"We have the ability now to intensify and accelerate the capture of this value," Allen Doane, A&B chairman and CEO, said in the conference call.

A&B's land sale plan was one of several strategies discussed to help achieve a goal of 10 percent to 12 percent average annual profit growth for the diversified firm.

A&B is aiming to achieve earnings growth amid slowing growth in Hawai'i's economy and a slowdown in two major company operations — residential real estate sales and Mainland cargo container business.

In the first half of this year, A&B reported earning $56.7 million, or $1.32 per diluted share, down from $67.6 million, or $1.53 per diluted share, in the same period last year.

A&B forecasts that Matson will experience flat container volume from the Mainland to Hawai'i this year, after a decline last year. The company also forecasts little or no short-term growth in the local housing market where it has several large residential development projects.

Doane said the company will focus on reducing costs at Matson, including ways to optimize fleet deployment.

A&B expects Matson's business in Asia will continue to be a source of strength for the company. It began China service early last year and has been running nearly full ships and been able to institute a double-digit increase in shipping rates.

James Andrasick, Matson president and CEO, said the company is in very exploratory stages to add capacity to its China service.

A&B also expects Matson business growth in Guam, where a planned military buildup is expected to increase development and demand for construction materials shipped to the U.S. Territory.

In agriculture, A&B seeks to triple its annual production capacity of specialty sugars to 60,000 tons, and return general sugar production to historical levels of at least 200,000 tons. The company is also exploring energy initiatives related to agriculture.

The company also estimates that it could spend more than $1 billion through 2011 on real estate investments, including projects already in development and new opportunities that arise.

Investors traded heavily in A&B stock yesterday before and after the conference call, pushing the stock down $1.58 to close at $49.50 a share. A&B stock in the past 52 weeks has traded as high as $58.19 (July 19), and as low as $48.75 (Aug. 16).

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.