Neighbor Island farmers and grocers who depended on Aloha Airlines cargo to either fly out or fly in perishable items say they will be badly hurt by the carrier's closing.

With May Day almost here, Aloha's shutdown couldn't have come at a worse time for Paradise Flower Farms of Kula.

The company had scheduled major shipments of fresh lei and lei flowers to florists, wholesalers and lei stands across the state.

Owner Teena Rasmussen, who runs the 30-year-old business with her husband, Craig, said the farm sends out 30,000 to 40,000 tuberoses, orchids, carnations and other flowers a week.

"You've got to be kidding," she said, upon hearing the news of Aloha cargo's shutdown. "We literally have crates leaving every day on Aloha."

Paradise Flower Farms was spending $3,000 to $4,000 a month on Aloha cargo flights, and Rasmussen worried that Hawaiian Airlines or other air cargo providers won't have enough space or refrigeration facilities to handle her flowers.

Aloha offered nighttime cargo flights and daily office hours at its cargo site at Kahului Airport, conveniences not offered by Hawaiian, Rasmussen said.

"The problem to me is that Hawaiian doesn't have the staffing in its cargo offices to handle the volume, and they don't run night freighters or have hours seven days a week," she said.

"Right now, this week, with May Day, we literally have thousands of flowers that we're going to have to get out. Coupled with all the produce that moved on Aloha and the mail contracts, where is the room going to come from? I can't imagine Hawaiian's got a couple of cargo planes just lying around."

The Hawaii Superferry is not an option for Paradise Flower Farms because drivers are required to accompany their delivery trucks and the Maui farm does not have its own delivery system on the other islands.

In addition, the Superferry so far only serves Maui and O'ahu, and the farm has customers on Kaua'i and the Big Island.

Aloha cargo's shutdown also hurts grocers who were flying in fruit and vegetables from O'ahu.

Esaki's Produce on Kaua'i typically flies in produce daily from Honolulu, said general manager Earl Kashiwagi. "This week, we had no guarantees they were flying after Sunday.

"We'll have to switch some things from air to barge," he said, and since the Young Brothers barges arrive on Kaua'i on Tuesdays and Fridays, "it's the middle of the week that will be pilikia."

"The chefs will have to plan," Kashiwagi said. With air cargo shipments, "they can order stuff right now (in late afternoon) and get it tomorrow morning."

Before the late 1980s, there was no air cargo service to Kaua'i, he recalled.

"Before the governor does anything else, I'd think they'd see if they can get a third barge in," Kashiwagi said.

Even if the Superferry were running to Kaua'i, it wouldn't be a viable alternative for Esaki's Produce, Kashiwagi said, because Esaki's delivery trucks aren't large enough to handle the amount of produce needed.

"Plus we'd have to have somebody onboard (Superferry) to drive the truck, a guy that's not going to get seasick," he added.

At least one Big Island farmer saw trouble brewing and shifted his Aloha cargo shipments to barge last week.

Hamakua farmer Richard Ha ships several million pounds of tomatoes a year plus cucumbers and other vegetables from his Hamakua Springs County Farms.

Some crops came to O'ahu by barge, and other shipments went to Maui on Aloha's cargo jets. Last week, Ha stopped using Aloha, opting instead to send two shipments a week by barge.

"The whole thing, the bankruptcy proceeding and then the negotiations for the sale of the cargo and the labor dispute, there was no way to know what was going to happen, so we decided we'd better take matters into our own hands," Ha said.

Kaua'i florist and flower grower Haunani Pacheco said she worries that her business, Hawaiian Paradise Flowers, might have to pay up to four times what it had paid Aloha for weekly air cargo shipments from the Big Island.

"You try to pass it on, the best you can," Pacheco said. "But since flowers are a luxury, there comes a point where unless they really need it, people won't buy."

Even if another air carrier comes into the market, they are likely to charge higher prices, Pacheco said.

She said she has reduced the number of anthuriums, orchids and other tropical flowers she grows on her Kaua'i farm because flying them from Hilo has been cheaper.

It would take her about a year to resume larger flower crops on Kaua'i, she said.

In the meantime, she'll have to ship with FedEx or UPS at higher prices and without the refrigeration offered by Aloha, Pacheco said.

She said the Superferry wouldn't help. Since her flower sources are on Maui and the Big Island, two ferry trips without refrigeration just wouldn't work, she said.

Bob Williams, president of the Hawai'i Island Chamber of Commerce, said Big Island farmers who ship fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers to O'ahu stores and restaurants will be most affected.

Williams called Aloha's closure "very disappointing news," and worried that the loss of air cargo capacity could set back long-term efforts by the state and federal governments to increase Big Island agriculture.

"Hopefully, it will still be possible to revive Aloha Air Cargo or to find another air carrier that can continue the service," he said. "Without the O'ahu market, our fresh produce and cut flower market will be deeply impacted."

"I know it's going to impact our floral industry incredibly," said Richard Nelson, a past president of the Hawai'i Island Chamber of Commerce. "We ship a lot of flowers on Aloha Airlines. It's going to hurt our flower growers and our plant shippers, and obviously it's going to hurt some of our papaya growers."