There is good news for noni exporters and producers across the region, with some progress towards having regional standards for fermented noni juice.
Nonu (noni) is an important agricultural export in Samoa, contributing more than SAT$10 million (US$3.65 million) annually to their economy and supporting more than 17,000 semi-subsistence farming households.
Samoa noni producer and exporter, the managing director of Wilex Samoa Group, Tagaloa Eddie L. Wilson, was all smiles after a recent meeting looking at Codex standards for noni and kava in Nadi.
The Codex Alimentarius is a collection of internationally-adopted standards and guidelines aimed at protecting consumers’ health and ensuring fair practices in the trade of food products, whether processed, semi-processed, or raw.
Wilson said, “I’m very pleased to see that the meeting has now accepted to promote the noni regional standard to level 8, which is subject to fine-tuning of the methodology to check its safety as a commodity, so it’s a real success.”
Wilson says this process began in 2004, “I want to thank FAO and WHO for really allowing the Pacific Islands to provide this regional standard and for providing the support and guidelines to make sure that there is compliance with the requirements of Codex standards.
“It would have been very difficult to get where we are today without that support, and also the Pacific region and industries for their patience, I mean 20 years is a long time,” he said.
“So it’s a real success, and I consider this meeting as sending out a clear message to the world that noni from the Pacific Region, nonu that is fermented, and nonu juice from the Pacific is safe.”
A veteran in the fields of both nonu and kava exports, Wilson reiterated the importance of meeting standards.
“If nonu is accepted by the FAO or WHO as a safe food item, then the world can consume it with that level of confidence,” Wilson said.
“And with that level of confidence, it will increase sales of this commodity, and with that increase in sales, of course, increase in production, which means processes we will be able to buy more from noni farmers, improving their livelihoods and our people in the Pacific,” he added.
The 16th session of the Codex Committee for North America and the South West Pacific in Nadi suggested that the Draft Regional Standard for Fermented Noni Fruit Juice be forwarded to the 46th session of the CODEX Alimentarius Commission.
The delay in passing noni standards was due to several food safety issues, including the requirement that scopoletin levels should be kept as low as technologically feasible until a safe level is established by by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food. Scopoletin is a naturally-occurring compound found in many plants.
The process of collecting, testing, and analysing nonu samples being undertaken in Samoa was approved at the CODEX meeting. The next step will be to supply that collected data to authorities, pending confirmation of its safety.
Noni
While Samoa has more noni farmers than any other country in the region, the plant is cultivated elsewhere. According to Tonga’s Senior Agriculture Officer in Tonga, Annelise Halafihi, noni grows in almost every household in Tonga, however, when it comes to export, there is still a gap, with just two producers.
“Of course, we have been exporting it overseas, however, they don’t really make the juice; in fact, the noni we export to Tonga is manufactured in Japan and Korea,” she said.
According to Halafihi, Japanese and Koreans approach local noni farmers to supply them with the fruit, which they will process and sell under their own label. She said, “They sell some locally, but they mostly export it.”
While noni farming is not popular in Tonga, kava farming is, and the conference addressed some issues raised regarding kava exports.
Kava
As host and chief guest for the opening of the meeting, Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade, Cooperatives, SMEs, and Communications, Manoa Kamikamica, acknowledged moves to implement CODEX guidelines in relation to kava standards.
He said, “Fiji has also adopted the ‘Fiji Kava Standard,’ based on CODEX, to ensure the welfare of kava plants during transport and prevent the spread of disease.”
While the Pacific has had years of experience handling kava, when it comes to exporting the commodity internationally, there are still some issues that need to be addressed.
According to former Codex regional coordinator and representative from Vanuatu, Tekon Timothy Tumukon, one area of concern is the abuse of the name ‘kava’.
“There is a huge worry now, Kava is purely a mix of cold water and kava, that’s what kava is—a pure mix, Tumukon said.
“A lot of Kava nowadays is mixed with other liquids, like cordial, and is now used in other nutraceutical ingredients,” he added.
Tumukon believes you cannot claim that a product is ‘kava’ when it is mixed with other liquids or substituents. Kava can only be called kava in its raw form, without any interference.
“But now those products still have the name kava attached to them, so if something goes wrong with that concoction it will come back to us, so these are some things we have to sort out to see if you start adding something else to them, calling them something else,” he continued.
Tumukon said, “People seem to be putting that issue on the back burner, and that was what hurt us in 1999-2001 in the German market and European market, where they prepared kava pills, so they were using ethanol for extracting kava from the root. We are not using ethanol; we are using water. That issue affected the industry, and we all closed down, except for Fiji and New Caledonia.”
He is concerned that this issue may affect the kava export trial currently underway, and soon to be reviewed, to Australia. He says the review team should include panellists from the Pacific Islands.
While the representative from Vanuatu had some specific suggestions, in Tonga, it is also a case of changing the mindset of farmers.
Tonga’s senior agriculture officer, Halafihi, said, “Most of the kava growers are small local farmers who find it a challenge to go through all the procedures; when we tell them, they say they weren’t educated and it’s too hard.”
She says despite trainings and briefings, “There have been a few concerns, especially from kava growers, that it is an added expense for them because of the regulations and requirements from Australia.”
“Now there needs to be an established kava processor that is HACCP certified, which means it is going to cost them more,” she added.
According to Halafihi, the meeting has broadened her understanding of what is needed in Tonga, and she plans to take that knowledge of better quality standards to her team.
