Once a lucrative export crop in the Pacific, kava has declined over the years.
By Dionisia Tabureguci
THE EXPLOSION of the kava exporting industry in the Pacific in the late 1990s in now looking more and more like a one-off stroke of luck for some stakeholders. Efforts may be on going in trying to persuade the Europeans to lift their ban on kava but there are scattered opinions of the success of even reviving that market.
Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and Fiji used to supply grounded kava to countries in Europe that produced kava-containing herbal drugs, sold then for stress relief. In a short while, it had become a bit of a wonder drug until the Germans linked kava to liver damage and banned it in 2001. How it swiftly truncated the soaring kava exporting business in the region is no longer a mystery but reviving the European market is an issue way down the line, said one Vanuatu exporter. Pacific countries exporting kava have much basic work to do.
By Dionisia Tabureguci
THE EXPLOSION of the kava exporting industry in the Pacific in the late 1990s in now looking more and more like a one-off stroke of luck for some stakeholders. Efforts may be on going in trying to persuade the Europeans to lift their ban on kava but there are scattered opinions of the success of even reviving that market.
Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and Fiji used to supply grounded kava to countries in Europe that produced kava-containing herbal drugs, sold then for stress relief. In a short while, it had become a bit of a wonder drug until the Germans linked kava to liver damage and banned it in 2001. How it swiftly truncated the soaring kava exporting business in the region is no longer a mystery but reviving the European market is an issue way down the line, said one Vanuatu exporter. Pacific countries exporting kava have much basic work to do.
