Fiji’s Kava Industry has experienced a major decline in production and export for the past few months affecting local farmers.

Kava Corp Founder, John Sanday says this is a direct consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sanday adds innovative business strategies have been implemented to revive the industry.

“Even though the freight rates had increased quiet remarkably, the main thing we were able to do is ship products to markets and that’s been huge and I think that is one area Fiji should count itself blessed that we also still have aircrafts now flying.”

Sanday highlighted the company also plans to engage more Kava farmers from across the country.

“We want to do a farmer aggregation strategy where all the farmers come through one channel where we can produce high quality kava which is hygienic, Fijian grown certified and then we can process to a quality that can be exported to new markets.”

Farmers are encouraged to build capacity in quality standards to improve the way Kava is produced, harvested and prepared for consumption and export.