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Kava Culture Santo kava mural

fait

Position 5 Hard Support
Is Palarasul a common variety grown on Santo?

That mural is very cool!
 

kastom_lif

Kava Lover
"Kam jekem lo Namba 3."

That's in Port Vila. Nambatri is a neighborhood on the south end of town.

Spos yu tingse mi stap kiaman, ale yu yu kam jekem screenshot ia blo Wikimapia: ::vflag:: ::chugger::

D3D10C91-A8A3-4B9C-9273-D7866B40564B.jpeg
 
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verticity

I'm interested in things
Nice!
interesting that the price is roughly the same as the Fiji farm gate price for green kava.
1000 vatu is about 9 USD or 19 FJD, right? So for green kava I gather from previous discussions it would take several kg to make 1 kg of dry powder. I think I've seen figures like a ratio of 5/1 green/dry. 5 kg for 5000 vatu would be about 45 USD for 1 kg or powder. Of course for it to to get to overseas consumers there are all kinds of expenses like processing, testing, shipping, distribution plus profit for everyone, etc. so I guess it's roughly consistent with the retail prices we are seeing here of like 90-130 USD/kg.
 

nabanga

Kava Enthusiast
Shipping from Vanuatu is very expensive - more so than Fiji or Tonga, so it all adds up (no income tax in Vanuatu, so there is high VAT & duties to compensate).
1kg of 5 star straight from the Santo factory was 6250vt ($56) last year, so by the time it is shipped, passed through a couple of pairs of hands, been repackaged, and supported someone's business, US retail is probably about right.
I still remember buying a 50kg sack of fresh green borongoru in Vila for $1/kg so as a commodity it is doing pretty well!

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
 

kasa_balavu

Yaqona Dina
Yup, the margins aren't huge, especially given the risk inherent in international trade. I personally know farmers who've turned down offers from US vendors (who participate on this forum) because they could sell at around the same price to local buyers without all the risks and hassles of handling the logistics and dealing with export and biosecurity procedures.
The best money is made by farmers and kava bar owners (assuming a large enough customer base and sustainable overheads).
 
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