By Netani Rika
There’s a storm brewing over the Pacific as the region’s kava industry watches a gradually unfolding situation in the North Queensland city of Bundaberg.
Known more for its sugar cane and famous rum, the city has found itself at the centre of a storm which may be more than a tempest in a kava bowl.
Bundaberg’s Mayor, Jack Dempsey, recently apologised to the descendants of 62,000 South Sea Islanders taken from Vanuatu and other Pacific islands to provide labour for cane farms in the 1800s. Slave traders, known as ‘Blackbirders’, would entrap or entice islanders to work on the vast plantations under terrible conditions.
As part of the apology, Bundaberg signed a “Sister City” agreement with Luganville in Vanuatu.
Dempsey said the partnership was designed to promote cultural and commercial ties. “We’ll look at all areas from agriculture to tourism to safety … from a council perspective looking at their water and sewerage and so forth,” he told ABC news.
Vanuatu’s agriculture industry revolves mainly around coffee, premium beef exports and kava. At some stage in discussions and interviews, mention was made of the possibility of kava being grown in Queensland from material made available by Vanuatu.
But Australia has had a long time ban on kava imports, blaming it for causing social and health problems among members of its First Nation people.
Recent promises by Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, to ease off on kava imports restrictions and allow greater access to the Pacific product have been slow to materialise.
Personal allowances for kava have been increased for visitors to Australia, but Pacific growers and traders are keen to export larger quantities.
Ironically, anecdotal evidence suggests it is Australia’s liquor lobby – ostensibly its large breweries and the Bundaberg distillery – that have been instrumental in casting kava in a negative light.
So, when the kava industry caught a whiff of the suggestion that the region’s plant would be cultivated in tropical Queensland, there was an immediate reaction.
Most of the discussions have been private or informal, generated by industry players, advocates, and experts. In Fiji – where kava exports can rake in as much as $FJD10 million per annum – there is concern that Australian plantations of the product will have enormous negative impact.
“Our farmers are already suffering from the downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” a kava processor said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Normally I’d be up-front about this, but we’re trying to break into the Australian market, and I don’t want to be victimised.
“We need to protect the kava plant. We need to own it as intellectual property.’’
Vanuatu’s Opposition Leader, Ralph Regenvanu, was more direct and urged Australia not to grow kava. “I wish to say to Australia, our friend, don’t grow kava,” MP Regenvanu told his country’s media.
“Do not allow kava to grow in Australia commercially, make it illegal but make it legal for us to export Vanuatu kava to you. That is the request of Vanuatu and other Pacific countries.’’
Pacific kava exporters and growers are aware of the growing market in the United States, and this has sparked interest even in the Solomon Islands where the crop is grown but not sold to the extent that it is in Fiji and Vanuatu.
On South Guadalcanal, kava production has increased by 52% from 48,061 plants in 2018 to 101,165 in 2021. With the perceived threat of Australia joining – and even industrialising the kava industry – there are now calls to ban exports of planting material from the region.
“There is a need for us as Pacific Islanders to protect this plant for the Pacific region. It is our intellectual property,” Pasifika Kava Forum founder Fe’iloakitau Kaho Tevi said.
“Kava is one of those plants that is culturally linked to us and to our identity as Pacific Islanders.”
Behind the scenes, Tevi’s group has been working for over 24 months to urge regional trade officials to list kava as a specific Pacific product. They also want regional diplomats to band together and protect market share in sectors such as beverage and nutri-pharmaceuticals.
The very real threat is that planting material will be leaked by renegade Pacific traders, eager to create partnerships which allow them a foothold into a previously impregnable market.
In a private conversation last week, one kava advocate wrote to colleagues: “I have no doubt that there would be lines of islanders willing to sell kava cuttings for $100 if given the opportunity.
“When (Pacific) people earn very little and the consumer world promises them happiness through materialism, it’s easy to take advantage of them and the Western World has known this for some time.’’
With Pacific eyes focussed on Bundaberg, time will tell whether the city has learned from its uncomfortable past in using cheap Pacific labour. Or will it now create a new history in which the Pacific is exploited again?
