Monty Pereira knows flowers. He’s been in the business for nearly three decades, and he's the general manager at the Honolulu-based Watanabe Floral.
As the local industry enters its busiest month of the year with graduations and Mother's Day, he shared what people should know about how the threat of tariffs might affect flower prices.
"I don't think many people realize, especially here in Hawaiʻi, because we have so much foliage and so many flowers that people just assume that most of the flowers are from locally grown sources, but that's not the case,” Pereira said.
He said that 88% of the flowers nationwide are imported from areas in South America, Mexico, Canada and Asia. Cut flowers like roses, carnations and orchids are going to be the most impacted by tariffs.
“When the tariffs first came out, it was that flat 10% across the board,” Pereira said. “So that was a little bit easier to plan for. But then Thailand was threatened with an additional 54% that would have seen lei prices skyrocket right before the one month of the year where there's lei occasion after lei occasion. Fortunately, that reciprocal portion of the tariff went away. So what we're dealing with right now is about a 16% to 17% tariff from Thailand, and around 10% to 16% from Colombia and Ecuador.”
He said that the floral industry as a whole has absorbed more of the price increases so that the burden does not fall only on consumers.
“We have a very keen recognition that we're not a necessity,” Pereira told HPR. “People need to eat. You can't just say flippantly, 'We're getting hit with a 17% tariff, we're gonna raise all of our prices by 17%.' It just doesn't really work that way. So everyone is doing all they can to minimize the impact on the end user, especially before the month of May, which for Watanabe Floral and for all floral shops here in Hawaiʻi, is about 50% busier than any other month.”
He said there is some concern that foreign exporters may start preferring to sell to countries that have not imposed tariffs.
"That is a possibility that we're certainly monitoring," he said. "America is not prepared to re-ramp up the farms, the floral farms. That's just not something that can happen overnight."
Watanabe Floral grew flowers from 1945 to 2008, but it couldn't keep up with international competition, he said.
“This really starts to get you to understand, what can we do? How can we pivot? How can we support local farmers here in Hawaiʻi so that they can produce more of the floral products or more of the food products, so that we can be a little bit more self-sustaining?"
This interview aired on The Conversation on April 23, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
