Page 19 - IB April 2022

Cover

Photo: SPC

COMMERCIAL KAVA PILOT OFF

TO A FLYING START

By Samantha Magick

When the Australian government gave the green light for
a two-year commercial kava pilot program in December last
year, “the excitement was palpable”, Australia’s Minister for
International Development and Pacific, Senator Zed Seselja
said.
The long-anticipated announcement followed an earlier
decision to increase the amount of kava individuals could
carry into the country (from 2kg to 4kg), and essentially
ended a 15-year ban on the commercial importation of kava
into Australia.
That ban was the result of fall out from a controversial
study in Germany, which linked kava in pharmaceutical prod-
ucts to liver damage.
As of 7 April this year, approximately 46 tonnes of kava had
been imported into Australia under the pilot.
PHAMA Plus (a A$36 million Australia and New Zealand
program working to maintain and improve existing market
access) says this kava came from six countries, through 193
suppliers. The biggest sources were (in order) Fiji, Tonga,
Vanuatu and New Zealand. Samoa, Solomon Islands and Papua
New Guinea are yet to join the trial at that point. Mixing at Lami Kava

Islands Business, April 2022 19