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Vendor News Fiji Fresh Kava will have a limited supply this holiday season

FijiFreshKava

https://fijifresh.com
Kava Vendor
My main kava root supplier in CA is almost out of stock. They can supply excellent pre-pounded kava from Fiji, but I'm not 100% sure about it so I declined.

I'm looking into a few new whole root suppliers, as well as some alternative techniques to process the kava. I hope that we can get back up to speed in early January!
 

Kodiak

Kava Curious
I'm so glad I found your shop on these forums. I've been disappointed with a different Fijian vendor recently and very much look forward to the order I just put in with you guys. Thanks for focusing on quality and root maturity!

I posted some order notes in my order just now about altering ratios to allow a 3/4 waka 1/4 lawena ratio due to conversations on here about waka vs lawena. If you can swing it, awesome, if not, no big deal! Looking forward to trying both!
 

recentreturn

Kava Enthusiast
Thanks for letting us know. I didn't drink much kava in December and then I tried to order and was mystified whether the lack of stock meant you were out of root or on vacation. I really enjoyed your product. Surprisingly, I especially liked the lawena (other lawenas haven't impressed me); great to mix some lawena into the waka. Look forward to you opening back up. I assume you aren't amenable to pounding the rest of your root chips and selling regular lawena at the powdered price?.. (which I wouldn't fault you for)
 

Krunkie McKrunkface

Kava Connoisseur
Thanks for letting us know. I didn't drink much kava in December and then I tried to order and was mystified whether the lack of stock meant you were out of root or on vacation. I really enjoyed your product. Surprisingly, I especially liked the lawena (other lawenas haven't impressed me); great to mix some lawena into the waka. Look forward to you opening back up. I assume you aren't amenable to pounding the rest of your root chips and selling regular lawena at the powdered price?.. (which I wouldn't fault you for)
I love that FFLawena. Great stuff. Their waka is excellent too but the lawena really leaps out at me as super wonderful.
 
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fait

Position 5 Hard Support
Seeing you guys post in this thread when the Fiji Fresh guy hasn't updated for weeks is making me green! I could see the Lawena being a great blending kava with the other things I drink.
 

Krunkie McKrunkface

Kava Connoisseur
Seeing you guys post in this thread when the Fiji Fresh guy hasn't updated for weeks is making me green! I could see the Lawena being a great blending kava with the other things I drink.
it is good for blending but it's so darn good on its own that I don't really want to blend it.
 

Kodiak

Kava Curious
I have had good email conversations with the owner in the past. I just emailed him to see what's up. Hoping this isn't the end of the story - the Lawena was unique.
 

fait

Position 5 Hard Support
I wouldn't be surprised if he's hard at work getting his flash-frozen fresh kava product online. I recall his freshly-pounded dry kava was meant to be the prelude to his fresh kava operation and I know many of us WANT that to happen. I never got to try any of the freshly-pounded dry kava. I would settle for that. But let's hope we hear from @FijiFreshKava soon!
 

FijiFreshKava

https://fijifresh.com
Kava Vendor
Hello @fait, I'm still here! I wish that I was making more progress with the flash frozen kava, but right now I'm simply working on a stable supply of high quality dried whole roots.

I've been battling several factors:

-Right after sales started picking up, my import partner's supply became depleted. Since he also operates a kava bar, he needed to serve his customers first, so I agreed to wait until he could restock before we could begin selling online again.

-My partner is also becoming more and more busy, which makes it more necessary to focus his attention on his core business.

-Now that it's hurricane season, the supply is further stressed. Farmers are reluctant to uproot their kava because they many days of continuous sun to fully dry it. As a result, prices are now very high (up to $160 Fijian dollars/kg) for whole waka.

Here's the plan:

-We have relatives in Fiji who are going to ship a small quantity of kava (several hundred pounds) very soon. If the quality is good, I'm hoping that I will be able to sell about 50 pounds online every month or so. If this product is well-received then we should be able restock a few more times during the rainy season.

-After the rainy season ends in late April, we're planning to travel to Fiji and buy several tons of waka which will last for the rest of the year.

-To take some of the pressure off my partner, I'm going to invest in some new equipment to increase the rate at which we can pound the kava.

***
I will say that living in a fully economically developed country like the US, we tend to expect a certain level of efficiency and business savvy. Oh mama, is it different in Fiji! There are far, far more opportunities to buy bad kava than good and the quality control is severely lacking. Trust is also a very troubling issue. It's definitely going to take a while to establish a stable supply and while that gets worked out, I'll probably only be able to sell for short periods.

I appreciate your patience. I'll definitely send out the alert when we're ready to sell again.

Dave
 

Kodiak

Kava Curious
^^ This is another reason why I love FFK. Great update Dave, and thanks for seeing this through - hope you also find lawena after the rainy season, I didn't expect to like it at all, but ended up loving it - it's the only stuff that doesn't make my wife nauseous.
 

fait

Position 5 Hard Support
Very informative reply! It's great to understand the business aspect of growing our beloved root. The differences in how nations run can be staggering and it's something we only expect in the back of our minds while the louder voice in our heads will keep on saying "It can't be bad in [insert country here], right?" "It can't be that bad in Fiji, right?" "It can't be that bad in Turkey, right?" "It can't be that bad in the Czech Republic, right?" "It" in this phrase could mean anything from kava, to renting apartments, to buyinga good dessert for a couple bucks.
 
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