A Fiji kava exporter is calling on government to regulate skyrocketing kava prices.
This comes after Cyclone Winston destroyed most of the country's kava crop last year and was followed by regular flooding giving farmers a hard time.
The Fiji kava council earlier this month said some markets had stopped selling kava and where it was available it was being sold for more than $US40 a kilogram - a 76 percent increase.
Koroi Hawkins spoke with Fiji kava exporter Snehal Morris of Bilo Sinai Kava at Aucklands Pasifika Festival over the weekend and began by asking her about the impact of Winston on the industry.
Photo: Facebook - Bilo Sinai Kava
Transcript
SNEHAL MORRIS: Cyclone Winston has really, really, in many ways had a very big impact on the kava industry. The prices have skyrocketed. Where we source from, so our kava product only comes from the island of Kadavu. The island of Kadavu was fairly spared by Cyclone Winston but just because everywhere else was so badly damaged the prices skyrocketed and the demand shot up through the roof. The prices really affected us because we cannot necessarily send that price off to the consumers because then it will be completely out of everyone's range to buy the product. So as a business we have suffered heaps with the price hike and I think a lot of it was to do with demand but I think it is at an important point right now where Fiji needs to really look at it, as a whole nation, government, companies and farmers together. We need to look at how we kind of manage the industry properly. I really have strong fears that if we don't manage kava prices well right now, we are going to lose quite a bit of our kava exports into markets because a lot of markets are simply not going to be able to afford it. I hope that we, in Fiji, can manage that properly and come to some sort of level ground, instead of this hike in prices every week, which is really affecting us.
KOROI HAWKINS: For farmers, are you working with farmers, helping farmers who are affected?
SM: In Kadavu, like I said, it wasn't so badly damaged and because our product is placed in a point where we market on the fact that we are pure 100 percent Kadavu, Fijian, a lot of the products in Fiji source from multiple sources and do their product, we like to do ours clean in terms of just from sourcing. We like to think that by doing that we're offering Kadavu farmers a stable market to be able to sell their product to. Not necessarily we don't go out and source and market somewhere else that's cheaper or anything. We like to give back to these people because it is from their hard work and their great product that we are able to market ours as pure Kadavu and Kadavu is known as the home of Fiji's finest kava. We like to think that and we want to keep that market going and we want to make sure that they have an avenue to always sell.
Snehal Morris speaking from Auckland's Pasifika Festival where she was showcasing her products over the weekend.
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