Tonga expects to boost foreign earnings with quality kava exports [1]
Saturday, June 27, 2020 - 14:34. Updated on Thursday, December 22, 2022 - 13:00.
Tonga could boost its foreign earnings significantly, if we are able to export quality Tongan kava, the Prime Minister, Hon. Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa announced at the launching of the Tonga Kava Quality Standard on 25 June at the Ancient Tonga Centre, Fangaloto, Nuku'alofa.
The two main suppliers of Tongan kava, Vava’u and ‘Eua Island, have already heavily invested in planting.
The PM said that he visited Vava’u in 2019, and according to statistics, 6626 acres of kava had been planted and would take three to five years before the kava was ready to harvest.
He was told this would produce about 26.8 million kilograms of ground kava. If this quantity of kava was sold and fetched $150 pa’anga or $USD80 per kilo, he said we could be looking at foreign earnings from kava worth billions of pa'anga.
Assuming that all of the kava will meet the new standard and imagining $4 billion of foreign earnings, the Prime Minister connected the kava export program to government's national program to construct 2100 km of tar-sealed roads.
He believed that it is essential to have good roads so that growers can easily get to their kava plantations.
Kava products are derived from selected parts of the kava plant, Piper methysticum Frost. The rhizomes, basal stems and roots are utilised for fresh and dried products, most notably the traditional ceremonial beverage made from kava extract and water.
Achieving a high standard of product requires rigorous testing throughout various stages of production.
Booklet launch
The guidelines for the Tonga Kava Quality Standard were published in a booklet, and launched by the Prime Minister with the Australian High Commissioner to Tonga, HE Mr Adrian Morrison. The standard was produced by Paula Mosa‘ati, National Facilitator for PHAMA Plus Program in Tonga, with the support of the Tongan Government, Australian Aid, the New Zealand Aid Program and the Pacific Horticultural and Agricultural Market Access Plus Program (PHAMA).
The standard was developed to make sure that kava as a traditonal and commercial commodity, is prepared and manufactured in accordance with a set of rules and guidelines to achieve food safety, for human consumption.
The booklet states that “the improvement in consumer confidence will contribute to increasing market share and expanding the consumer base for kava and kava products”.
The intention of the initiative is to “provide a set of minimum requirements, specifications and guidelines that products and processes should adhere to in order to achieve product safety and meet client expectations.”
For example, kava must be a minimum of three years old before harvest. The standard assesses colour, maturity, aroma and taste, filth, moisture and ash content. It also requires strict analysis of the "kavalactones" chemo-type, because the content of kavalactones in kava plants or kava beverage depend on the kava plant varieties, parts of the plant and the age and geographical location of the plants.
Defects caused by insets, mould or foul aroma are unacceptable. The kava product must also comply with the limits for pesticides established by the international Codex Alimentarious Commission. The kava and kava products must also comply with any microbiological criteria for foods. Producers, handlers, processors and exports of kava will have to comply with food safety legislation, so kava processing and export facilities must be built to a high standard.
The project was hailed as a futuristic initiative, by those who attended the launching ceremony.
Tonga Kava Bill
At the launch, Hon. ‘Akosita Lavulavu, Minister for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Tourism surprised the gathering by announcing that she intends to table into parliament a Tonga Kava Bill 2019.
A kava grower herself, she said that she had been working on the Bill since 2017, and was optimistic that parliament would pass it.
Paula Mosa‘ati expressed his surprise over the Minister's announcement of her Tonga Kava Bill.
He elaborated that the Tonga Kava Quality Standard initiative was only a recommendation, and it needed a Kava Bill to make it happen. “Tonight the two different pathways are merging,” he said.
There had also been an announcement by the Prime Minister in Parliament on Monday, 22 June, that Tonga now can “export Kava to the European Union market.”
Other speakers at the launching of Kava Quality Standard for Tonga were the Australia High Commissioner to Tonga HE Mr Adrian Morrison, the vice-chairman for Tonga’s Market Access Group, Manase Siua, an ‘Eua kava grower; and the Minister of Finance also an ‘Eua kava grower, Hon. Tevita Lavemaau.