For Little Plum Executive Chef Casey Kusaka, flowers have never been an afterthought. They shaped his childhood in Kaneohe, where his grandmother wove lei and ti leaves, his mother and sister danced hula, and the house was always filled with the scent of blossoms.
"I grew up around flowers one way or the other," he said. Today, Kusaka sees florals as central to Hawaii's sensory storytelling, adding fragrance, texture and depth, not just color, to the plates at his trendy Manoa restaurant. But he says tight margins make it increasingly difficult to use them as often as he would like.
Even as the demand for flowers in kitchens, at special events and in cultural practices grows, Hawaii's floriculture industry — from anthuriums and orchids to tropicals and common lei flowers — continues to wilt. Over the past two decades, dozens of growers have left the sector, production has dropped sharply and many of the state's most recognizable lei flowers are now imported.
According to federal and state data, the local floriculture industry generated $83.4 million in 2000 and $75.6 million in 2010; by 2022 that figure dropped to $47.1 million and fell again in 2023 to $43.9 million. Anthurium sales, valued at nearly $12 million in the early 2000s, have fallen to less than half that, and imports now comprise nearly all of lei flowers.
Read more at Hawaii Tribune Herald
