Tonga Kava Committee calls for more support for growers

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.

"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".