While farmers and merchants are reaping the benefits of surging kava prices, those living in South Pacific communities are being priced out. The tradition, ceremony and culture that surrounds kava could be at the greatest risk.



Following the collapse of the kava market in the 2000s, many South Pacific kava farmers slowed production or walked away from their plantations entirely. Given kava takes a minimum of three years to harvest (depending on the season), response to surging Western and local markets is slow.

Couple this with the devastation caused by Cyclone Winston - which destroyed the bulk of kava plantations in February last year, Cyclone Pam in Vanuatu the year before that and droughts in Tonga, kava prices are skyrocketing with no sign of slowing.



The price of kava has doubled or even tripled in Tonga and Fiji over the last year. In Vanuatu, exports have increased by 26 percent since 2016.

Pacific Island governments and entrepreneurs are working to modernise kava cultivation to meet the demands of regional and global markets the in hope that the drink's growing popularity in the United States and Europe can alleviate rural poverty.



In the US kava consumption, including through new kava bars, has almost doubled since 2012 and demand is growing. Kava has become a major export commodity and source of foreign exchange earnings for Pacific Island countries.



This isn't the first time kava has attracted lucrative market attention. Back in the 1990s kava, in the form of pills and extracts, conquered the Western world and became one of the most popular remedies prescribed for stress and anxiety. That boom came to a dramatic end in the early 2000s following a handful of reports of adverse reactions to products containing kava.

Kava experts say they were likely caused by rare allergies, poor quality of the raw material and questionable manufacturing practices. The form of kava that was promoted and consumed in the West had little to do with kava that has been drunk and consumed safely in the Pacific for millennia.

Many manufacturers ignored not just the traditional knowledge necessary for kava's proper consumption, but even common sense. Instead of using clean roots and water extraction (as it's been done safely on the islands for centuries), some producers imported and extracted poor quality, often moulded or otherwise contaminated kava with very strong organic solvents.

As a result, they got highly concentrated mixtures that potentially contained toxic compounds not present in traditional kava. Such products were as much like kava as poor quality caffeine pills are like fine coffee.

With the history of safe kava use virtually unknown in Europe, the reports were blown out of proportions, blamed on kava as a whole - leading to a sales collapse. Despite a decade of research confirming the safety of traditional kava and the re-legalisation of kava in key markets, the stigma remains.

A major challenge for the industry is controlling the kava that's entering the market for trade. When it comes to importing countries, the only country that has introduced a proper legislation aimed at protecting the traditional and safe forms of kava is New Zealand - the large Pasifika community playing an important role in process.

Other importer countries, including the United States, lack any kava-specific quality standards. It is therefore largely up to the kava-growing nations to improve the quality of their exports.