HILO, Hawai'i — With Mother's Day approaching, Grayson Inouye needs to move more than 10,000 pounds of cut flowers a day from Kea'au to Honolulu or the Mainland, and the sudden shutdown of Hawai'i's largest interisland cargo carrier hasn't helped.

Inouye's company, Pacific Floral Exchange, is one of the largest exporters of cut flowers in the state, and until this week he relied on Aloha Airlines' cargo division to move his crop to O'ahu for sale or shipment to the Mainland.

Yesterday he suddenly found he needed contingency plans, and resorted to trucking flowers across the island to Kona to fly them directly to the Mainland on national carriers such as United and Northwest. The company used Hawaiian Airlines, FedEx and United Parcel Service to move more limited shipments out of Hilo.

This is Inouye's busiest week of the year, and with volume running three to four times normal, he is worried about the possibility of a logjam at Big Island airports as the weekend approaches.

"Eventually, because space is tight, a backlog will grow, I imagine, whether it be from flowers, papaya, fish — whatever goes on the airline," he said. "We have to cope with it, because there is no alternative."

Other Neighbor Island businesses suddenly found they also have limited options in the wake of the Aloha shutdown.

A Maui bakery that normally ships to O'ahu customers via air cargo on weekends was trying to work out how to get the manju delivered, and a Kaua'i restaurant owner was calling local farmers to try to get items such as tomatoes, leeks and peppers he normally flies in.

Big Island tropical fruit distributor Tropical Hawaiian Products had to scramble to find alternative shipping for the 12,000 pounds of fresh and puree guava and papaya it needs to ship this week, said Loren Mochida, general manager of the Kea'au company. Its customers include juice producers such as Meadow Gold and Island Maid.

The problem was that while Aloha could move pallets of cargo out of the Hilo airport, Mochida said, Hawaiian can't. That means that only smaller shipments of less than 1,000 pounds can move on Hawaiian, and now Tropical Hawaiian Products has to move large shipments by barge.

Bulk surface shipping is cheaper, but for the smaller shipments to consumers who want the freshest product possible, "the cost of that small package might go up," Mochida said. "When is the fuel price coming down?"

PHARMACIES AND FARMS

Pharmacist Lisa Martin, co-owner of Papalina Pharmacy on Kaua'i, said she is concerned about drug shipments that used to come via Aloha.

Aloha shipments always arrived early in the morning, Martin said, but she'd been told that Hawaiian will ship drugs on a space-available basis. "We were told that some days we may get one box in the morning, another in the afternoon."

"Pharmacies usually have in stock at any one time maybe a week's worth" of drugs, she said. Martin said she hopes pharmacies won't get behind on their shipments.

She's especially concerned about items that need refrigeration, such as insulin, and those requiring special packaging, such as asthma inhalers.

Saffron Restaurant owner Joaquin Menendez was calling Kaua'i farmers yesterday, trying to find local sources for the tomatoes, peppers and leeks he typically flies in from California via Honolulu.

The Blossoming Lotus Restaurant, also on Kaua'i, is also shifting its attention to Kaua'i farmers, owner Gabe Zingaro said.

"Fortunately, two new businesses on the island are growing tomatoes and mushrooms — things we were bringing from the Big Island," Zingaro said.

LESS VARIETY

Chuck Boerner of Ono Organic Farms on Maui normally brings exotic fruits from the Big Island to sell alongside his Maui-grown papayas, bananas and avocados at farmers markets.

"It's been so easy and convenient through Aloha Airlines" to fly over rambutan, longan, dragonfruit and other fruits, Boerner said, with rates not over 32 cents per pound.

Boerner heard, but hadn't confirmed yesterday, that rates with Hawaiian could be up to 45 cents per pound, he said.

Boerner's Big Island suppliers didn't expect to ship anything to him on Maui this week, he said. "Big Island farmers at market (there) may have some deals," he said.

The specialty fruits can't be sent by barge from Hilo to Maui, because they'd take five days routed through Honolulu, Boerner said. The only option is to find another way to fly them and mark up the price, he said.

MOVING THE MANJU

For 15 years, Home Maid Bakery on Maui shipped its delicate manju pastries to O'ahu three times a week by Aloha Air Cargo, owner Jeremy Kozuki said. A few weeks ago the bakery shifted to using Young Brothers for two of those shipments and that seems to be working, but the fate of a weekend air shipment is uncertain, he said.

The Maui manjus are sold at Daiei, Times and Longs stores.

Grand Hyatt Kaua'i Resort and Spa spokeswoman Diann Hartman said via e-mail that its "fish suppliers had somewhat saw the situation coming and have arranged for alternate transportation. As noted on the news, fresh bread is probably the biggest immediate concern. Other transportation options will be found for everything, but will most likely come at a higher cost to us."

The $14 million statewide cut-flower industry will likely be among the producers most affected by the Aloha shutdown because fresh flowers require quick delivery, and barges aren't generally the ideal way to move flowers.

"Of course, everybody's going to be scrambling to find carriers," said Kelvin Sewake, county extension agent for the University of Hawai'i-Manoa's College of Tropical Agriculture. "Part of it is Aloha did carry quite a bit of the floral freight interisland, so obviously they're going to be impacted for a while until they can find other carriers."

Despite the initial shock, Sewake predicted "it's just a matter of time before things kind of settle out, but initially the impact will be quite substantial for certain shippers."

"This industry has been growing for the last 30 years now, and things like this slow us down, and we want to continue to grow. It is really important that we have the infrastructure set up for us in Hawai'i," he said. "We need this kind of infrastructure to ensure the growth of our state. Things like this hurt."