Plans to introduce laws to protect Fiji’s kava or yaqona industry is back on the table, with the confirmation yesterday by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade Manoa Kamikamica that Government will reintroduce the mothballed Kava Bill.
The Bill was introduced by the FijiFirst government in 2016, which had as its main purpose the establishment of a Fiji Kava Council to regulate and manage the kava industry.
“Like I’ve always said, the kava industry is potentially a billion-dollar industry for Fiji and the Pacific, so we need to create the structures that allow us to grow that industry properly. One of the main things that has not been done is the actual bringing into force regulation or legislation,” Mr Kamikamica said.
He said an early morning meeting was held yesterday with kava industry stakeholders.
“So, the discussion today (yesterday) was about collaborating with industry and key government agencies, looking at what steps need to be taken to progress with the kava industry and one of the key outcomes is of course, the reintroduction of the Kava Bill.
“Consultation with stakeholders, and the country and then bringing it back in as one of the first steps to try and regulate the industry.”
Mr Kamikamica said the Kava Bill will provide guidance on any research or development associated with kava.
“Like any industry, once you start talking about export, we need to have proper structures in place and that’s why we’re moving ahead with the Kava Bill and there’re some other things that will come out of that, which is sort of more guidance around research and development, monitoring, those kinds of things to make sure that the industry starts to flourish.”
Kava as an export commodity has been increasing in value over the years, from a mere $8.9million in 2015 to $32.5m in 2019, to $43.6m in 2020, slightly declining to $41.9m in 2021, according to export data from the Fiji Bureau of Statistics.
