Athough he is a successful businessman today, Praveen Kumar faced many challenges growing his kava business.
And while the 62-year-old inherited his property from his father, he has left no stones unturned in his attempts to develop the business.
Mr Kumar, the managing director of Praveen’s Kava, and his wife Kiran Lata now have seven kava outlets in Viti Levu. In this point of origin, we’ll get to know how the milk bar man turned into a kava dealer.
“I’m originally from Navua,” Mr Kumar said.
“I was born at Samabula in Suva, but was raised in Navua as my maternal grandparents were from Suva.
“My dad was from Navua, so I came to Navua because myaja-aji (dad’s parents) were from Navua. So, everything started in Navua.”
Mr Kumar’s father was a schoolteacher from a farming background.
“When he grew up, there were many ups and downs in life because he was only five years old when his dad passed away.
“He was good at school, so he managed to complete his studies and became a schoolteacher.
“While he was teaching here, he also continued to farm because he had a good piece of land for rice farming.”
Mr Kumar’s mum was a housewife who helped his dad.
“My dad bought the land because he loved to do farming. He spent most of his holidays and weekends on the farm.”
Mr Kumar said when he inherited the property, it was free and there were no loans for him to pay off.
“I had two brothers and two sisters. One brother passed away and the other one is in Australia. Mr Kumar didn’t migrate like his siblings because he saw that his father faced a lot of difficulties developing this property.
“So, I thought why not stay here and see what the potential of this place is like.”
Mr Kumar said the land on which they used to plant rice has changed into a commercial place.
“I’ve filled the land to do business.
“Developing it wasn’t easy. I had to spend a lot of money to fill up the area with soil and it took me decades to develop it.”
Mr Kumar said after completing Form 6, he stepped into his father’s milk bar in Navua Town.
“When I reached Form 6, it became quite difficult because the exams were prepared in New Zealand.
“And in our form, only four or five children pass the university entrance exam. It was a difficult exam, not like nowadays.
“So, that time if you passed university entrance, it used to be a big thing in the community.”
After completing Form 6, Mr Kumar entered his dad’s small shop which he had rented for his other brother.
“My brother became a police officer, so I started looking after that business. That was the early ’80s. I was 20 years old.
“It was a small canteen/milk bar kind. Navua had a small township, and we also had a cinema house here and my milk bar was next to it. Mr Kumar had to work late nights to make a profit.
“In the beginning, my dad used to come and help me, but most times I looked after it myself.
“Sometimes, I had to work late in the night because they used to have late night shows and I had to have my shop open.
“At times, I had to remain open until two o’clock in the morning.”
Mr Kumar then observed people from interior Viti Levu bringing kava in front of his shop and people from the West were coming to buy kava in Navua.
“Middlemen from other places, like Sigatoka, Nadi, Lautoka and Nausori were coming to Navua looking for kava.
“And I thought that maybe it’s good business.
“Why not try it because it was coming right to my doorsteps. Slowly, I got all the tips on what to do, how to deal with kava and where to buy it from.”
Mr Kumar sent his daughters abroad to get educated with the income from the business.
“It was difficult for children to have an education overseas those days, but I worked hard to get my daughters educated overseas.
“Two of my daughters were in Australia and two in New Zealand.”
While he was running just the milk bar, he found the profit percentage wasn’t good, but when he started selling kava, “I used to make dollars”.
“With one bag of mixed peas, I was only making five cents in profit, but with kava, I was getting a dollar profit.
“So, I found the kava business more profitable, and I continued to expand it.”
Mr Kumar said the weather was the major challenge that affected his supply.
“There were a lot of challenges. Sometimes we were hit by cyclones and due to heavy rain, there was flooding. As a result the kava supply was affected.
“My shop was also under flood water so many times. Mr Kumar got married at the age of 24. His wife supported him and he managed to expand the business.
“Later I turned that small kava shop into a small supermarket.
“This area where I am staying and doing my business is our farm. Our house was here, but most of the land was used for rice farming.”
The place he developed was so boggy, the land was filled with water, and it took Mr Kumar years to fill it with soil.
“This place, where my house stands right now, was also a rice field.”
These days, apart from Praveen’s Kava, Mr Kumar has a chicken and ice cream shack that is rented out by one guy and a building beside it which is rented by RC Manubhai.
“The quality of my kava speaks itself. Customers like it, that’s why my business grew.
“I don’t want to say that my kava is very good because my kava does the talking.” Mr Kumar gets his kava from nearby areas. Most of it is supplied from Namosi, Serua and even Beqa.
“I focus on all these places because farmers from these places visit me everyday.
“Some bring one kg, some 20kg and some even 100kg. “I have a lot of time for the farmers.”
Every morning, Mr Kumar’s routine is to go into the shop and wait for them “or they’ll come and wait for me at around 5am to 5.30am with the produce”.
“I’ll buy and stock it. I export as well to New Zealand and Australia. I sell a lot locally and export maybe 10 to 15 per cent.
“More than 80 per cent is sold locally and I’m more than able to meet the demand.”
Sometimes as a result of bad weather, perhaps a cyclone or flooding, the supply does get affected.
“During such times, the price goes up and the quality is also affected.”
There are seven branches of Praveen’s Kava in Viti Levu and Mr Kumar has no plans to expand them.
“Now that I am aging, I don’t plan to extend my business. “I’ll see if my son-in-laws want to do this business, they’ll be most welcome to continue this.”
Mr Kumar’s message to all out there is to make use of the land, to work hard and plant.
“Don’t get involved in drugs. I feel sad when I see young people getting arrested for drugs.
“The Government also has to step up and everyone has to work hand-inhand to curb this drug problem.”
“You can find greener pastures in Fiji as well. All you have to do is work hard.”
