Nonu earns foreign dollars [1]
Monday, May 31, 1999 - 10:00. Updated on Friday, January 8, 2016 - 13:27.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 14, no. 2, May 1999.
Tonga’s plentiful nonu trees may not be able to match the usefulness of coconut trees as the ‘tree of life’ for Tongans, but when the Royal Nonu International started buying nonu leaves in April for 80 seniti per kilogram, the nonu gained new status.
Nonu, which is used in traditional medicine, is a strong growing tree that grows wild in Tonga, and normally people do not think twice before chopping one down because they grow up so easily again.
Within just over a week, RNI paid out $60,000 for over 100,000 kg of nonu leaves, enough to fill 10 containers for export to the Bell Tea Company, in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Fineasi Nau, the president of the Royal Nonu International, said that the best time for nonu is between January and June, when there is a lot of rain and moisture in the air. He estimated that by the end of the year, they should be able to export about 500,000 kg of nonu leaves.
Besides exporting green nonu leaves to New Zealand, the company also bakes the leaves in an oven for 10 to 14 hours, and the dry leaves are exported to St. George, Utah, USA.
Fineasi said that they would soon be exporting fruits and stems, but at the same time he was worried that people will cut down trees in order to pick up all the fruits, and they might eventually destroy the nonu trees.
He is encouraging people to start planting nonu. The Royal Nonu International has 146 acres at the village of Fua‘amotu, the biggest nonu plantation in Tonga. They started planting in 1997 and began harvesting a year later.
The company, through its USA connection has produced tablets, tea bags, skin cream and shampoo, but they plan to build a factory in Tonga soon.