In Vanuatu kava is an integral part of their daily lives as it has been used as a substitute for crops like cocoa and copra which have an unstable price, whereas kava price remains to be consistent. Most farmers in Malekula Island in Vanuatu farm Kava to be sold as green kava for 200 Vatu per kg. In the village of Mae alone on the northern part of Malekula Island a total of 16 farmers have an estimate of 60 tonnes ready for harvest. A few weeks ago I visited the farmers to train them on how to add value to this crop so as to reap a maximum return on this long term crop.
The kava market is mainly Santo and Port Vila but the farmers always complain that buyers often cheat them by not paying total sale price thus discouraging them to sell. As it is there is alot of matured kava ready but farmers do not agree with the market price and conditions. Upon enlightening them on the value adding of kava from green to dry, the farmers are eager to take this on and try to export dry kava through a local exporter. Even though there is a kava exporter in Santo the farmers still feel that their produce are sold undervalued.
Mae Kava farmer Kaloris Mone in total has over 1600 kava stumps of which 800 are 7 years old. In calculation of this 800 kava stump it can average a weight of 30 Kg thus can give a yield of around 24 tonnes earning him 4.8 million vatu.
Adding value to this commodity is not as hard as one may think as Nivans thought that it was pretty complicated process. It will only take 2 weeks for kava to be 100% dry and ready for sale to exporters. This extra work could earn them over 400% more from a kg compared to selling them green. It was good to see the smiling faces of the farmers when they were told the potential their crop has as an export commodity.
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