Maile lei scarce as spring rituals approach

By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer

When someone calls to order a maile lei, said Karen Lee, she has only one piece of advice.

Karen Lee of Cindy's Lei and Flower Shoppe on Maunakea Street said the availability of maile lei is declining at a time of year when demand for it is greatest. Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser

It's a sad state of affairs when the fragrant lei so central to Hawaiian celebrations and rituals is in such short supply, said Lee, manager of Cindy's Lei & Flower Shoppe.

By the most conservative estimates, there is less than half the normal number of maile lei available now, as the high-demand season of hula festivals, proms, weddings and graduations approaches. As a result, each coveted lei is selling for around $30, roughly twice the normal price.

The reason, said the state's chief wholesaler, is not a shortage of maile but the labor needed to pick it.

The twining, vine-like shrub (scientific name: Alyxia oliviformis) grows in Pacific regions beyond Hawai'i, but not always with the mid- to small-sized leaf most favored for the woven lei.

The Cook Islands is the source of about 60 percent of the maile used for lei-making in Hawai'i, said Dave Thompson, the sole wholesaler here who imports it.

In the past year, Thompson said, two things have put a crimp in his business. For one, the value of U.S. currency has plummeted compared to the New Zealand dollar that is used in the Cook Islands, which means Thompson pays more for a product with a thin profit margin. Two years ago a New Zealand dollar cost 45 cents, he said; now it's up to 70 cents.

The second and more critical issue is labor, he said.

"The problem we're having is the people picking for us are aging, and they cannot go into the rough areas where the maile grows," Thompson said. "The kids don't want to do it. The population is leaving these rural areas for better opportunities."

At this time last year, he said, his weekly shipment consisted of 700 to 800 lei; now the order hovers around 200.

"It's nothing that's going to be solved in a few months," Thompson said. "I'm looking for long-term solutions, financial incentives to encourage them."

In the meantime, Thompson has had to cut costs by taking over dealing with retailers, ending the wholesaling relationship he had with Watanabe Floral Inc.

Leland Watanabe, the firm's cut-flower manager, said his Cook Islands maile inventory is now "a drop in the bucket" and that the local supply can't compensate.

"It's a shame," he said. "Everybody loves maile, especially at this time."

Finding local pickers is also a problem for Sandra Vincent, a O'ahu wholesaler whose ranks of available pickers on the Big Island is thinning.

"You don't get reliable people," she said. "And once you get reliable people, then they want more money."

On Sunday, the annual Merrie Monarch Festival begins in Hilo, where hula halau will converge for the start of the famous hula competition on Thursday. Maile is one of the plants central to the practice of the dance and related rituals, and for such a big event huge quantities of lei are required.

Ed Collier, kumu hula of Halau O Na Pua Kukui, said he needed 50 lei for his Merrie Monarch performances. When he found out that his usual Cook Islands source couldn't come through, he spent spring break on the Big Island arranging for someone to gather sufficient maile there.

There really is no substitute, he said, when you're performing a chant that honors Pele, the deity central to the festival's host island.

"The maile, it's the significance of (the goddess) Laka of hula, and also for Pele herself," he said.

Occasionally, shoppers will substitute a kind of ti leaf lei that's cut to resemble maile when they can't find the real McCoy. But, said Lee at the stalwart Cindy's lei stand, it's heartbreaking to see something so entwined with local culture becoming an increasingly rare commodity.

"What are our children's children going to do for their prom lei?" she asked. "It's like a turning point for lei ... people of Hawai'i should be concerned."

Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.