Hawai'i festival sells the real thing

By Shayna Coleon
Advertiser Staff Writer

With 400 booths of locally crafted products, and as many as 2,000 invited buyers coming from around the world, the Made in Hawaii Festival starting Friday is being billed as the biggest yet.

Bella Finau-Faumuina, left, and Delia Parker-Ulima, sell die-cut flowers, ferns, honu and other Hawaiian-themed designs for their scrapbook and craft product line, which has a booth at this weekend's Made in Hawaii Festival. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Now in its seventh year, the festival attracts not only residents, but wholesale buyers from as far away as Taiwan who are interested in selling Hawai'i-made products outside the Islands, said festival director Amy Hammond.

Organizers this year invited buyers not only from Hawai'i but Japan, Taiwan, Europe and the Mainland to meet exhibitors, after noticing peaked interest from out-of-towners in recent years.

Hammond said buyers would have a chance to meet with vendors at a trade show before the festival opens Friday, and that they are expected to leave "with their arms full, their shopping bags full."

"They will have a chance to talk to exhibitors about wholesale pricing and other products," she said. "The exhibitors at this time get to show off their new products."

Hammond said last year's festival generated approximately $1 million, with an additional $7 million to $10 million in residual sales, the result of buyers establishing running accounts and reordering products throughout the year.

Just how many connections are made at the festival and locally made goods sold outside of Hawai'i are only beginning to be tracked, Hammond said.

Vendors pay $450 per booth, some with high hopes of catching the eye of a wholesale buyer and starting a lucrative business.

"This show is more than exciting — it's vital," said Helen Cummings, a Maui rehabilitative massage therapist who started Maui Excellent, a line of therapeutic massage products that she hopes will find wholesale buyers this weekend.

Cummings made and packaged more than 1,000 bottles of her signature Volcano Oil for the festival.

"We can sell the product one piece at a time, but as a small business this is our big shot out. We're going full out on this festival," Cummings said.

Joanna Hernandez, a jewelry designer and member of the Pacific Handcrafters Guild, which has staked out 30 booths, said the event helps artists who lack business experience.

"It's very difficult to know where to go and how to approach buyers," said Hernandez, a jewelry designer who has landed several wholesale accounts from past festivals.

"I hated going out there ... That's the advantage of this show. People come to you, and as long as you have the information available to them, if you make sure you have all your paperwork and catalogs, they will approach you."

Other vendors are coming to the festival with products they say can represent Hawai'i truthfully.

Delia Parker-Ulima and Bella Finau-Faumuina said the scrapbook business they started this year, Creative Native Crafts, showcases Hawaiian-themed materials such as die-cuts of honu, plumeria and laua'e fern, and palaka and lauhala paper that scrapbook lovers in Hawai'i will snatch up.

"My partner and I both enjoy scrapbooking, but we couldn't find any Hawaiian products," said Parker-Ulima, 29. "Since we're both Native Hawaiian and local, we wanted to portray what local products would look like.

"Our Mainland competitors had scrapbook materials with only hibiscus (die-cuts). Not to be mean, but locals wouldn't want to buy that. It didn't portray what we thought Hawai'i is. So we take the time to make the product as beautiful as possible and make it as true to Hawai'i."

Reach Shayna Coleon at scoleon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8004.