While Fiji’s kava industry is booming, the export opportunities are far more expansive than have yet been capitalized on, particularly as medicinal products.
Speaking at the Australia Fiji Business Forum in Sydney last week, Zane Yoshida, founder and director of Fiji Kava said, “Medicinal kava was once a booming industry, with hundreds of millions of dollars of kava imports into Western Europe alone in 2001.
“At this time, it was estimated that medicines that contained kava captured 10 per cent of the benzodiazepines market with an estimated 1.3 million registered users at the time,” Mr Yoshida said.
The European kava ban of 2002 disturbed this trend and while the ban was reportedly challenged by several organisations including the World Health Organisation, and ultimately lifted in 2015, the export market has not fully recovered as yet.
According to Mr Yoshida, since the ban was lifted, there has been growing regulatory acceptance of kava safety, and its use in cases of anxiety have since been recognised and proven through clinical trials.
“However, in many countries there remains a stigma attached to kava where many regulatory concerns still exist,” he said.
According to Mr Yoshida the establishment of the Fiji Kava Council will help strengthen trust in product safety and is long overdue.
“This work complements the Australian government funded PHAMA (Pacific Horticultural and Agricultural Market Access) program in defining kava varieties and establishing quality standards, which further highlights the importance of the Australia Fiji relationship.”
PHAMA Plus Fiji country manager Navitalai Tuivuniwai concurred saying, “Kava is one of our top commodities other than sugar.”
Additionally, Mr Tuivuniwai highlighted the importance of research and development surrounding safety, use, and shelf life of all Fijian agricultural export products and reported that the organisation is in discussion with research entities in Fiji and Australia to bring this to fruition.
“Our nations are entering an era of greater collaboration which will help us continue our journey to bring Fiji kava back into the western world in a trusted, efficacious format,” Mr Yoshida said.
