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.
“Kava export is not going to go anywhere very soon,” said Charlie Long Wah, owner of Kava Store in Vanuatu. He has been in the exporting business now for some 40 years. “The problem is we have no complete analytical informational, value, certification, etc before we talk about exports. The organizations of kava councils in Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa and Tonga should start from the beginning.
Most of the kava that we export everywhere in the world, especially in Vanuatu where we have 80 varieties of kava, we are getting all sorts of rubbish inside. Until we complete and make available all the analytic information on kava, it cannot be commercialised.”
He is promoting another crop, Canarium indicum nuts, from trees that grow wild in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea.
To give this new crop a proper start, Australian scientists with the help of locals like Long Wah, are doing research into post harvest handling and processing of the nuts, known in Vanuatu as Nangai nuts and whose kernels are eaten like peanuts.
“It’s big money,” said Long Wah. “30 bags of nuts value added equals 2700 bags of copra. I am the leading buyer in Vanuatu. I buy at $25,000 a tonne and the price is still going up because we cannot supply the local market.
Compare this with kava and you will see it’s very bad for kava because the cost of bringing the green kava to town has gone up and farmers make little money out of it. In 2000, Vanuatu was drinking about 6000 tonnes of green kava and exporting 1000 tonnes of dry kava. In 2008, we are under 300 tonnes dry and 600 tonnes green. In Port Vila in 2000, we had 1000 kava bar but now we only have 150. At the trend we’re going on, we will soon end up with only 30 kava bar very soon.”
Long Wah’s view on getting the basics together is shared by Vanuatu kava scientist Vincent Lebot, who earlier told Islands Business magazine that the Pacific suffered from a lack of quality standards or control system, which could eventually lead to the demise of the kava industry.
“Everyone is dreaming about exporting but the fact is that the local product is poor and first of all has to be improved,” Lebot said.
“Assuming that European Health Authorities and companies do their homework and pinpoint the exact problem (that led Germany to link kava with liver disease and ban it), which is doubtful, a lot has to be done in Vanuatu where serious difficulties now exist. Traditional knowledge is disappearing and most kava traders and exporters don’t know what they are dealing with. In fact, many of them don’t really care. They don’t drink what they are selling. As a result of the “kava boom” of 1998, farmers have adopted unprofessional attitudes. Nowadays, kava is not as safe as it was in the past because variety selection is favouring yield over quality. The so-called “two-day” varieties are fast growing, resistant to disease and high yielding but they are not suitable for consumption,” said Lebot.
The development of kava quality standards to guide export from the Pacific became a hot issue after the European ban but to date, little been done in this area, said Lebot and Long Wah.
Ever since that ban and last year’s unrelated ban by Australia, kava as an export crop had quietly shifted out of the limelight and kava cultivation had reportedly slowed.
Even a report released last year by the World Health Organisation confirming the safety of kava has failed to wield as much power as Pacific kava councils and exporters had hoped.
“German Health authorities have shifted the goal post,” said To’imoana Takataka, chairman of the Tonga Kava Council. “They are now saying that we should supply enough information regarding the safety of kava. And our scientist colleagues in Germany say yes, they are working towards that goal but so far, we in the Pacific are still not sure what will happen now.”
These days, kava dealers are putting more focus on supplying the local drinking market or the overseas drinking market, which is driven by demand from Pacific communities living overseas.
They are considered easier markets to supply, as properly cleaned and dried kava roots are simply packed and shipped off to destination.
“If the market from Europe opens today, I don’t think we can meet that demand,” said Takataka who also exports through Lita Trading Enterprises.
“It will take several years before we can fulfil that market.”
In Tonga, he said, farmers had been discouraged by the international bans and were planting less kava than before, just enough to supply the domestic beverage market. As a result, Tonga has found it a challenge to supply the growing overseas drinking market.
The story is the same in neighbouring Fiji where exporters like Salesh Raj Kumar of Raj Kava Dealers and Sunil Karan of Ram Karan Kava Dealers are having to import kava from Vanuatu in order to satisfy demand from the domestic market, which they also supply.
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This article was published in the monthly Islands Business Magazine as: "Getting the basics right to save kava." It appeared on page 37 of August issue, 2008.
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.
“Kava export is not going to go anywhere very soon,” said Charlie Long Wah, owner of Kava Store in Vanuatu. He has been in the exporting business now for some 40 years. “The problem is we have no complete analytical informational, value, certification, etc before we talk about exports. The organizations of kava councils in Fiji, Vanuatu, Samoa and Tonga should start from the beginning.
Most of the kava that we export everywhere in the world, especially in Vanuatu where we have 80 varieties of kava, we are getting all sorts of rubbish inside. Until we complete and make available all the analytic information on kava, it cannot be commercialised.”
He is promoting another crop, Canarium indicum nuts, from trees that grow wild in Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea.
To give this new crop a proper start, Australian scientists with the help of locals like Long Wah, are doing research into post harvest handling and processing of the nuts, known in Vanuatu as Nangai nuts and whose kernels are eaten like peanuts.
“It’s big money,” said Long Wah. “30 bags of nuts value added equals 2700 bags of copra. I am the leading buyer in Vanuatu. I buy at $25,000 a tonne and the price is still going up because we cannot supply the local market.
Compare this with kava and you will see it’s very bad for kava because the cost of bringing the green kava to town has gone up and farmers make little money out of it. In 2000, Vanuatu was drinking about 6000 tonnes of green kava and exporting 1000 tonnes of dry kava. In 2008, we are under 300 tonnes dry and 600 tonnes green. In Port Vila in 2000, we had 1000 kava bar but now we only have 150. At the trend we’re going on, we will soon end up with only 30 kava bar very soon.”
Long Wah’s view on getting the basics together is shared by Vanuatu kava scientist Vincent Lebot, who earlier told Islands Business magazine that the Pacific suffered from a lack of quality standards or control system, which could eventually lead to the demise of the kava industry.
“Everyone is dreaming about exporting but the fact is that the local product is poor and first of all has to be improved,” Lebot said.
“Assuming that European Health Authorities and companies do their homework and pinpoint the exact problem (that led Germany to link kava with liver disease and ban it), which is doubtful, a lot has to be done in Vanuatu where serious difficulties now exist. Traditional knowledge is disappearing and most kava traders and exporters don’t know what they are dealing with. In fact, many of them don’t really care. They don’t drink what they are selling. As a result of the “kava boom” of 1998, farmers have adopted unprofessional attitudes. Nowadays, kava is not as safe as it was in the past because variety selection is favouring yield over quality. The so-called “two-day” varieties are fast growing, resistant to disease and high yielding but they are not suitable for consumption,” said Lebot.
The development of kava quality standards to guide export from the Pacific became a hot issue after the European ban but to date, little been done in this area, said Lebot and Long Wah.
Ever since that ban and last year’s unrelated ban by Australia, kava as an export crop had quietly shifted out of the limelight and kava cultivation had reportedly slowed.
Even a report released last year by the World Health Organisation confirming the safety of kava has failed to wield as much power as Pacific kava councils and exporters had hoped.
“German Health authorities have shifted the goal post,” said To’imoana Takataka, chairman of the Tonga Kava Council. “They are now saying that we should supply enough information regarding the safety of kava. And our scientist colleagues in Germany say yes, they are working towards that goal but so far, we in the Pacific are still not sure what will happen now.”
These days, kava dealers are putting more focus on supplying the local drinking market or the overseas drinking market, which is driven by demand from Pacific communities living overseas.
They are considered easier markets to supply, as properly cleaned and dried kava roots are simply packed and shipped off to destination.
“If the market from Europe opens today, I don’t think we can meet that demand,” said Takataka who also exports through Lita Trading Enterprises.
“It will take several years before we can fulfil that market.”
In Tonga, he said, farmers had been discouraged by the international bans and were planting less kava than before, just enough to supply the domestic beverage market. As a result, Tonga has found it a challenge to supply the growing overseas drinking market.
The story is the same in neighbouring Fiji where exporters like Salesh Raj Kumar of Raj Kava Dealers and Sunil Karan of Ram Karan Kava Dealers are having to import kava from Vanuatu in order to satisfy demand from the domestic market, which they also supply.
------
This article was published in the monthly Islands Business Magazine as: "Getting the basics right to save kava." It appeared on page 37 of August issue, 2008.
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