Efforts by Pacific countries to protect kava will be a waste of time, said American kava bar pioneer Jeffrey Bowman.
Speaking to this newspaper from Boca Raton, Florida, Mr Bowman, who co-founded The Nakamal, North America’s first kava bar in 2002, said efforts should instead be put on producing higher quality kava from the Pacific to supply what he predicts will soon become a huge global kava industry that the Pacific is currently not prepared for.
“If you think Americans are the only ones who grow or will be growing kava you are mistaken. As the industry grows it will spread worldwide through globalisation. Just as coffee, chocolate, pineapples and many other foods have done,” Mr Bowman said.
“What no one seems to understand is that the world market is growing so fast we already can’t get enough high quality clean kava to supply our needs.
“What is going to happen as the extract market explodes into Europe? Kava will run out and prices will skyrocket. We’re looking down the road 5-10 years and making sure everyone has enough kava. We refuse to run out of kava. We suggest everyone else starts thinking more about that before it’s too late.”
Efforts in the Pacific to protect kava through Geographical Indicators is in progress, catalysed by the success of the American Kava Growers group, of which Mr Bowman is a member, to grow kava in Florida.
Last week, secretary general of the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat Henry Puna told this newspaper the word “kava” is not a name “for everybody else to use” and should be commercially protected as an exclusive intellectual property of Pacific Island people and cultures.
“I’m not sure what anyone thinks they are going to protect,” Mr Bowman said.
“You can’t trademark the word kava when it comes to a plant. We have already consulted trademark attorneys. That whole thing to protect the word kava regionally won’t work either. It’s too late. Kava grows in too many places, who would own the rights? Vanuatu? Fiji? Tonga? Hawaii? This will just create more fighting.
“I think they’re wasting their money trying to protect it, money that could be better spent helping farmers produce higher quality, clean kava to be able to better compete with others that will ultimately start growing it.”
