NEGOTIATIONS are progressing between the Kadavu Kava Farmers Co-operative Ltd and suitable kava buyers in the United States of America for the establishment of its markets.
Kadavu Provincial Council chairman Malakai Masi revealed the company recently held talks with a dealer from Sacramento who approached the company revealing his interests.
Mr Masi said the company had its executive stakeholders who were undertaking research into possible markets and heading negotiations.
Referring to a recent study, Mr Masi said Kadavu was a major yaqona-growing area with over 80 per cent of all households in the province involved in yaqona farming.
Therefore, he said, the opening of markets for the province’s kava would spell a brighter future for farmers.
After the implementation of a new kava processing shed and pounding machine in Vunisea, Kadavu aimed at boosting production of kava on the island.
Mr Masi said operations would begin after the province’s bose vanua scheduled on March 26-27.
He added the new machines also came with packaging machines which would ensure that kava produced on the island was ready to be marketed internationally under its very own brand.
Mr Masi also revealed that each district in the province aimed to raise $10,000 each to fund the provincial kava trade business.
Meanwhile, during a recent training workshop at Namuana Village on the island, the Ministry of Agriculture revealed that over the past decade, Fiji’s kava exports averaged 218 tonnes a year and was valued at $F6.6million.
The ministry also revealed that Fiji’s kava export volume in 2017 compared with 2016 increased by 52 tonnes, an increase of 20 per cent from the previous year.
