American kava is no threat to Pacific kava, said former chair of the Vanuatu Kava Industry Association Michael Louze, playing down the successful cultivation and harvesting of kava or yaqona in the US mainland by a group of American businessmen.

“It’s a buzz based on a limited number of plants. It’s not impacting our exports and it’s not going to impact our exports very soon,” Mr Louze said.

“They wanted to make a buzz to see how we would react and we reacted so they were quite successful. But now we need to react correctly and to address the issue.”

Mr Louze, who exports kava to the US, Australia, New Caledonia and France, where kava is used in cosmetics, said Indonesia and countries in South America presented more risks as they have climatic conditions similar to kava growing countries in the Pacific.

“I’ve seen what is happening in Hawaii, I have heard people planting it in Australia but from my perspective, trying to grow kava, which is a very sensible crop, outside of its traditional vanua is not easy. If you factor in labour, the cost of production in Florida will be very much higher. But in places like South America or Indonesia, it’s gonna be much lower and that’s where the risks lie for us.”

Mr Louze said the Pacific will not be able to legally stop the cultivation of kava anywhere else in the world and called on Pacific kava growing countries to hasten collective efforts to protect their kava industries by enacting relevant laws.

“We should definitely have a united approach towards this kind of issue like if some of the Pacific countries don’t have a legal framework to stop the export of planting material, they should make sure that they have one in place in order to stop anyone from doing it.”

“It’s really sad because this has been one of the issues that has been repeated for a number of years now in the Pacific.”

So far, only Vanuatu has a specific Kava Act that protects its kava industry.