Growing Fiji’s kava industry
IN last week’s ‘Growing Fiji’s kava Industry’ edition in this column, we spoke to Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister Manoa Kamikamica who said the local kava industry has the potential to surpass the earnings of the sugar industry.
With more than $40 million in export earnings so far, he said Government was looking at ways to possibly open up the kava markets in Europe, UK and China and allow local kava farmers to export to these countries, as Fiji currently exports only to the US, Australia, New Zealand, Marshall Islands, Hawaii and Nauru.
Mr Kamikamica, who recently returned from a three-day cooperative and small and medium enterprise (SMEs) trip in Kadavu, also spoke on the potential that Kadavu has as the second largest kava-producing island in Fiji.
This week, we speak to Pauliasi Bula Cirinavosa, a kava farmer from Kadavu, on the challenges faced by local farmers, particularly farmers from Kadavu, when harvesting and looking for buyers of their kava produce.
Originally from Lau, Mr Cirinavosa spent the past six years in his mother’s village, Natumua Village in the district of Tavuki in Kadavu, where he planted and harvested more than 100 kilograms of kava.
He returned to Suva in December last year.
“There are about 45 houses in Natumua Village and for all these families, our main source of income is kava. Before it used to be seafood but following the ban placed on the harvesting of certain seafood, everyone has resorted to kava farming as a way of supporting their individual families,” Mr Cirinavosa said.
“In one household, there could be two or three kava farmers, usually depending on the number of youths in that house. When I first moved to Kadavu six years ago, there were about 30 youths, and these youths have their own individual farms.”
Challenges at the farm
Mr Cirinavosa’s farm is about an hour and a half walk from the village and this presents challenges to access and logistics as it was not accessible by any kind of motor vehicle.
He said the use of horses as a means of transportation was not an option either as their village, and the nearby villages continue to face water contamination issues.
“It would take me one and a half hours to go from the village to the farm, so most times
I’ll leave from the village on Mondays, camp in the woods for four days and return home for the weekend. Another problem is that we are not allowed to take horses to the farm.
“Over the years, and even now, we have had incidents of water contamination because the water we drink in the village is coming from the highlands where our farms are. Therefore, we are forbidden from taking any animals up to transport kava down from the farms.”
Another challenge was the planting of kava in the right weather to ensure it grows.
He said planting when the sun is high and hot was not something they do as the heat could enter the soil and kill the little shoots.
The cost of harvesting
According to the 23-year-old, planting, as some may think, is not an issue.
The challenge comes during harvesting time.
He said a farmer could be paying $700 alone for labour hire when his kava is being harvested.
“The planting process is not an issue because it’s quite easy and we could do it ourselves. Harvesting, however, is another story as it requires additional labour and time, and this is why we need to have enough money to pay for labourers.
“We always have our targets. Like if we’re planting a block of kava plants, which is usually made up of 500 to 600 plants, then we would set a target to harvest after five years. We could pay for individual labour, which would be $50 per person for uprooting, and another $20 per person for them to carry it down from the farm to the village.
“During one harvest we could be hiring 10 people or more and usually, harvesting takes four to five days depending on the size of the farm and the number of plants.
“The other alternative is to pay $350 per day to the village youth group who will uproot and bring it down to the village. This is usually the preferred option as it saves costs for us farmers. If they can’t have it done within one day and there’s a lot more left, then we pay them another $350.”
Mr Cirinavosa said if the leftover plants to be harvested wasn’t that many, then the farmer could uproot it himself and save some money.
After the kava is brought down from the farm to the village, it is washed and arranged on drying racks to be sun-dried.
“It would be a blessing if it’s sunny throughout because then, we could sun it only for a week. If it’s cloudy or rainy, then the drying process could take up to three weeks or a month even. We also have to pay labourers who will do the drying process for us.”
High freight charges
While selling to wholesalers in the island was an option farmers could take, most choose to bring their produce to Suva where they feel they could get better prices.
But with this comes “overpriced” freight charges.
“Currently, for us, selling kava on wholesale from the village is a loss because the money we get is not much. What we’ll do is call wholesalers here in Suva and ask them if they are looking for kava.
“Bringing our kava produce from Kadavu to Suva is another challenge for us because of the freight cost we have to pay. Currently, we’re paying about $2 a kilogram of waka (kava root), kasa (stem) is about $1.50 per kg, lewena (rhizome) has its own freight rate and so forth.
“The other option, which most of us Kadavu farmers have opted for is to use island express. Island express is a lorry that goes around to the villages in Kadavu picking up their produce for a price. We’ll just pay them some money and they’ll handle the freight charges from Vunisea jetty to the Narain jetty in Suva.
“For the harvest that I did last year, I paid about $500 for transportation to Suva and it was over 100kg of waka. It was a big help for me because if I had paid for freight in the local shipping, I would have paid more.
“Most from the island have been complaining about the freight charges we’re being charged when bringing produce from the island, and that we’re being overcharged.”
He said another option was for farmers to sell it in bales. One bale, which “we measure it using two 25kg FMF Mill Mix sacks sewn together,” could take from 40kg to 46kg of kava, and this was still an option most didn’t want to take as it was not worth the sweat they put into the produce.
But another issue faced when bringing it to Suva was the lack of customers.
Challenges in the market
For Mr Cirinavosa, he counts himself lucky as a brother of his who had gone overseas had given him his stall at the Suva market to use.
“So, when there are no interested wholesalers, I’d keep my kava stock at home and bring it little by little to sell at the market.
“Overall, it all depends on the customers who come and buy. What I’ve noticed here at the market is that it gets graded again. The small one sells at about $80 per kg, medium at $90 per kg and the big ones at $100 a kg.
“Sales wise, in a week I can only sell about two kgs because there are a lot of wholesalers here, and people’s preference of kava taste also varies.”
Currently, Mr Cirinavosa still has some stock at home from the harvest he made last year but he’s optimistic that he’ll be able to sell it all and get enough money to compensate for the expenses he’s used and the hard work he put in.
Possible solution
“We’d be grateful if Government could step in and provide a market for us to directly export overseas,” he said.
“Currently, I’m exporting small amounts to England and Australia, but they have quotas which we cannot exceed. If Government can give us access to export markets overseas it would be really helpful.”
Mr Cirinavosa could be found selling his kava at the Suva kava market.