Growing interest from global markets for kava

KAVA export in Fiji and the region is expected to grow exponentially in the near future following growing interests from global markets.

Agriculture Ministry permanent secretary Dr Vinesh Kumar said the Chinese and Korean markets have showed interests in purchasing kava from the region for pharmaceutical purposes and for social beverage.

Mr Kumar described this growth of emerging markets at the 16th Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Codex Committee for North America and South West Pacific (CCNASWP) meeting underway in Nadi.

“We have seen that Australia now that we are commercially exporting kava, we already have what inflated the US as well but again, if you look at other markets, we now know that kava is expanding,” Mr Kumar said.

“We have got interest from China, we’ve also got interest from Korea in terms of own pharmaceuticals as well as in terms of looking at as well as well as beverage.

“So we have these are some of the areas that there has been interest from the exporters as well as importance in terms of kava but the major one at present, if you have seen once Australia has allowed the production at commercial level, the export has significantly increased.”

Mr Kumar said it was also interesting to note the healthy competition within the region.

“For us, we are expanding as well exploring new markets as well so we want to set up standards so that we can have fair trade when it comes to our product.

“There has been a concern as well in terms of the emerging markets and where kava sits, whether its food, whether its beverage and these are some of the things we want to make sure we iron out.

“And we want to make sure fair play is within the region when it comes to trading.”

Meanwhile, kava export earnings in 2020 were valued at $43.6 million which was termed a significant growth as compared with $14.2m in 2016 and $30.7m in 2018.