Mother's Day is this weekend, and graduations are just around the corner, making it the busiest time of year for lei makers. But tariffs are raising the price of flowers, and families are feeling a squeeze in their budgets.
What does it mean for the business of lei? Are you making your own? Or turning to lei made from ribbons, feathers, fabrics and other materials?
Nick Lee from Cindy’s Lei & Flower Shoppe is the third generation to run the Chinatown business that his grandmother started in 1959.
He said the timing of President Donald Trump's tariff announcement was inconvenient, but that he was thankful for the 90-day pause, which is set to end in early July.
"I think at a press conference, he set 36% for Thailand, and that we would not have been able to stomach just because of the seasonality of the business that we're in, in which, by late April, we do start graduation season," he said. "We're thankful that there is a pause, at least, to get us over the busy time."
Even with the tariffs, Lee doesn't see Hawaiʻi increasing its own flower production for lei making.
"To buy like land, that's an enormous endeavor and to pay off a loan or mortgage on that land, but the cost to fertilize, the cost to plow the land, to be able to set up some kind of like fencing, to be able to set up some kind of security protocol, to be able to procure all your materials, and you're so dependent on the weather, such as farming — that I think would be the bigger variable cost," he said.
"I think people in Hawaiʻi and outside of Hawaiʻi, they've embraced the tradition — the culture of lei as a way to celebrate and mark these rites of passages, milestones, occasions, or even just casual gifting, welcoming a friend at the airport, just bringing a lei over to the holidays to give to your parents, your mom. I don't know how that future will exactly be, but I think lei will remain in some way, shape, or form," he said.
This interview aired on The Conversation on May 5, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m.
