Firm targets medicine, vitamins providers
THE pharmaceutical and nutraceutical market for kava has huge potential and Fiji Kava is very much focused on this opportunity.
According general manager sales George Kotobalavu, the company not only sold finished goods in terms of instant kava capsules but also served bulk raw ingredient kava which the pharmaceutical and nutrition companies demanded.
He said two months ago they had signed up a supply agreement with BioCeuticals, a subsidiary for Blackmores Australia.
“This company is focused on medicine and vitamins providers in the Australian market.
“So they have taken upon Fiji Kava to be one of the suppliers for raw kava ingredients and that is a massive industry.
“If you look at the market for global health issues the global demand by 2026 is estimated to be around 200 billion and another example is the Chinese market that we signed up a distributorship agreement with last month.
He said the target market there for pharmaceutical and nutraceuticals space is about $A30 billion ($F45.87 billion) so that was an area of the market the company was very much interested and focused on.
“The benefit for that market is the volume, the order in tonnes and obviously they demand a very specific quality which we are geared up to deliver and we have demonstrated through lab tests and certifications.
“For us that’s a very large target market which we are focused on delivering.
“For the US market what we have done is that we have firstly started selling online through our own website fijikava.com and also amazon.com.”
The growth rate has seen positive growth on a monthly basis since the company launched according to Mr Kotobalavu.
“We have seen a quite impressive growth, month to month and just very recently we had ran out of stock for our products on amazon.
“So right now we are working with the farmers to try and step up our supply and make sure we are able to meet the demand.
For the US market, Fiji Kava had started online and discussions with the US ambassador to Fiji, Joseph Cella, focusing on the next chapter of the Fiji Forward Kava Workshop.
“We have started with online and now we are going into mainstream and retail convenience and bricks and motors.
Fiji Kava has its own farm however it also has its own external sourcing from contracted farmers.
“We started with a few. There is about 10 to 20 but we are looking to grow that to about 200 to 300 when you are looking at the demand based on the market that we are targeting.
“So for us, we’re specifically focused on compliance with standards, we make sure we are through understanding of that and we work with farmers to deliver the same.
“Our testing methods when we visit the farm for them to be able to supply to Fiji Kava is quite meticulous, we take samples of the roots and we actually send that to the lab to test to see whether any non-organic matter is present.”
He added if there were any presence of non-organic matter than the company would not source from that farm.
“So we specifically focus on organic meaning no pesticides and no chemicals whatsoever.
“We make sure that it is in compliance with our specifics based on our years of research.”
The founder of Fiji Kava, Zane Yoshida, was said to have conducted research with the University of the South Pacific a few years back.
“What that research was about was starting the 13 varieties across Fiji and from that research they were able to identify specific varieties, which are the safest the most efficacious and basically meets the specifications required by most of these standards, like the US FDA, the Australian TG standards.”
Fiji Kava has a strong aspect for product development as the company had started with instant kava which was instant powder format.
“Part of our supply chain development strategy is that we want to set up nurseries in Vanua Levu and Ovalau first.
“So Phama Plus has awarded us the grant to build those nurseries, which would supply the seedlings to all these farmers.
“The kava farmers have the land, one of the challenges a lot of kava farmers face is they don’t have the seedlings.
“We want to fill that gap,” he said.