Did you know that more than 90% of the lei sold in Hawaiʻi are made from imported flowers? That's the word on the street from floral shops in Chinatown. Orchids often come from Thailand and pikake is starting to come from Indonesia.
Hawaiʻi's lei industry is in danger of slowly disappearing as aging flower farmers find it more difficult to get the next generation interested in the business.
A group called BEHawaiʻi is behind the push to support and preserve Hawaiʻi's lei industry. Executive Director Makana Reilly sat down with The Conversation to talk about the Lei Poinaʻole Project — the never forgotten lei.
"Someone at a floral shop shared with us that if someone doesn't do something about the lei industry soon, then lei are just going to disappear within a decade," Reilly said. "Then I called a good friend of mine who owns a generational floral shop also in Honolulu... and he said, 'No, Makana, I think that's wrong. It's gonna happen sooner. I give it about six years.'"
Reilly said lei are an integral part of Hawaiʻi's culture and the community needs to be intentional about supporting the local flower industry.
"We were really galvanized as an organization to pursue ways to support the industry. We figured that on the front end, that looks like getting more plants in the ground as soon as possible."
The organization has $400,000 from the Administration for Native Americans to support eight existing small and medium lei growers and help develop 16 new growers by 2025.
"The way that we go about support is connecting with an interested grower and having a discussion with them about what type of climate they're in, what type of soil they have, and then trying to assess what's the best plants for where they are, and what is their capacity to support these plants," Reilly told HPR.
She said the Lei Poinaʻole Project is still gathering data from farmers and lei shops. They hope to start helping growers within the next few months.
"Plants take time and they take love. It's going to be a little bit of a game of patience for all of us."
This interview aired on The Conversation on June 6, 2023. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. This interview was adapted for the web by Sophia McCullough.
