Grace
Tinetali-Fiavaai, RNZ Pacific
Journalist
Kava
growers in Tonga need more facilities and resources to
improve production in the kingdom, according to the island’s
National Kava Committee chariman Fe’ilokitau Tevi, who says
the negative impacts of climate change are affecting the
industry.
The wet season in Tonga typically runs from
November to April, but Tevi told RNZ Pacific that they have
been experiencing more rainfall than expected in the kingdom
at this time of the year.
“So that does have an impact
on harvesting of kava and the whole processing of kava,”
Tevi said.
“Kava is very finnicky with regards to the
humidity levels in the air.”
Processing kava in this
kind of environment requires additional resources and
machinery.
Ariana Trading’s Mele Vea, who has been
growing kava for over 10 years, said that because there has
been a lot of rain, they have had to use a kava dehydration
machine.
However, she said this racks up enormous
power bills.
“For a month, it’s almost TOP$3000
(approx US$1200). It depends on how many (sic) kava we
process,” she said.
Vea said they were looking for
donors or funds to assist them in purchasing a solar-powered
kava dryer.
She said the electricity power supply was
also very unreliable.
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“The electricity here in Tonga
is like, on and off, so we need to have our generator in
place, just in case, for the time of a power outage.” Vea
said.
And that is only the first of the hurdles Mele
Vea and her company have to overcome.
Ariana Trading’s
main export market is the United States, which means that on
one hand there is the uncertainty of Trump’s trade policies,
and on the other is FDA requirements.
“And one of the
requirements [is] we have to be hazard certified. So we
still are working on our kava processing facility at the
moment,” Vea said.
The kava produced by Vea’s business
is one of Tonga’s high grade kavas which includes varieties
such as: Lekahina, Kava Uli, Kava Fulufulu, Kofe Hina, Kofe
Kula, Kava Kula and Valu, all of which vary in texture and
taste.
Support for kava growers large and
small
Fe’ilokitau Tevi is of the view that all kava
growers in Tonga deserve support, not just those who grow
the most kava.
“You’ve got families planting, one-acre
plot or half-an-acre plot, to farmers who are doing 8,16,
32, acres of kava and then having access to many more acres
of kava,” Tevi said,
Tevi said the family that plants
a small amount of kava is just as important as farmer that
plants acres of kava.
“So as a country we need to look
at the needs of this 10-to-15-plants kava grower as well as
the 15-to-20-acres kava grower,” Tevi said.
As far as
pricing goes the national kava committee chair said Tonga is
also catching onto what neighbouring countries like Fiji and
Vanuatu are doing in grading kava based on
quality.
“You know Fiji…the people are paying
upwards of FJ$140 per kilo (approx US$61) of high grade
kava. Vanuatu is the same. So Tonga is just getting there as
well,” he said.
Tevi said people are quick to link
high kava prices to a shortage in supply but he thinks that
is just one piece of the puzzle.
“We can get any type
of kava at a cheaper price, that’s not an issue.
“It’s
the supply of quality [high] grade kava that is now an issue
with regards to pricing,” Tevi said.
Legislating to
protect Tongan kava
As well as the challenges with
growing and exporting Tongan kava, Tevi said there is
ongoing work to try and protect the cultural drink from
commercialisation.
He said some people have been
exploiting kava by diluting it and mixing it with other
products.
In his opinion this doesn’t qualify as true
kava and he said there are efforts being made to draft a
kava bill aimed at safeguarding Tongan kava via the noun
“kava”.
“The many aspects of: protecting, standards,
definition of kava these are elements that are going to be
incorporated into the kava bill,” Tevi said.
He said
Tonga is in a unique position to do this because it does not
have many other indigenous names for kava like yangona in
Fiji or malok in Vanuatu.
Tevi said if they can
successfully argue the word “kava” is etymologically linked
to the Tongan language then there is an opportunity to
protect it.
“And so once we begin the processes to
protect the word ‘kava’ we can then protect the products
that use the word ‘kava’,” he said.
Tevi said the
question is if you begin to extract kava using other things
like CO2, pressure or methane extraction, is that still
kava?
“And we are saying ‘no’ it is a Piper
methysticum based and extracted product. It is not kava,” he
said.
“Because kava we mix it with water and we drink
it. That’s
kava”.
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