(Bad) news from the islands?

[Kojo Douglas]

A friend of mine just went to the Pacific looking for his next batch of Kava, and came back saying that the Solomons and Fiji are tapped out, and that Van is getting sparse. A lot of Kava in the ground is immature at just 2 or 3 years. Anyone else got the pulse on this?

 

[EQ]

We better stock up boys!

 

[Kava Time]

Yeah that is the case for fiji, the demand is exceeding supply at this stage but if you got the right contact then supply of good kava will not be an issue. Its hard to get a good contact though because most farming is done in hard to reach places where theres no mobile signals either. It took me a month to get a solid supplier setup and i am based in fiji! Imagine how hard it would be for non residents lol
I dont know much about vanuatu but climate change is a serious issue. And for solomons i think they are still growing their kava industry to a commercial level.

 

[blindy107]

Looks like Chris @Gourmet Hawaiian Kava is gonna be staying busy for the foreseeable future.

 

[Mr G]

This seems to be what put GKE out of business?

 

[Deleted User01]

Unfortunately, @Gourmet Hawaiian Kava does not have unlimited kava. Growing all those varieties is time intensive and labor intensive. It's not a mass production farm by any means and it will be hard for him to fill the Kava shortage. Considering it is an American Farm, he also doesn't have access to dirt cheap labor. We are very lucky that the price for Hawaiian Kava has not doubled.

 

[Kojo Douglas]

Unfortunately, @Gourmet Hawaiian Kava does not have unlimited kava. Growing all those varieties is time intensive and labor intensive. It's not a mass production farm by any means and it will be hard for him to fill the Kava shortage. Considering it is an American Farm, he also doesn't have access to dirt cheap labor. We are very lucky that the price for Hawaiian Kava has not doubled.

Indeed. As a farmer myself I know the blood, sweat, tears, and dollars it takes to run a farm. Three shells to Chris for doing all this work. It's not easy. Plus, to stagger your yields and planting times to get optimal harvests must be a real chore. I can't imagine mapping a landscape and thinking that what is planted this year can't be harvested until 2021. The only comparable crops are trees for timber. Cocoa was hard enough for me, waiting five years for my first decent harvest.

 

[Jerome]

Seems like it would be profitable to introduce kava production in lands with similar climate/soil types but with cheap and readily available labor. I'm thinking Costa Rica, Coastal Nicaragua, or even Guatemala. Easy to transport the root to the states, cheap and expert agricultural laborers, rich volcanic soil and tropical climates...

The downside I see as most possible is that it could hurt the economies of the south pacific islands if it were successful.

 

[Jerome]

@Gourmet Hawaiian Kava Why are there not more kava growers in Hawaii?

 

[Kojo Douglas]

Seems like it would be profitable to introduce kava production in lands with similar climate/soil types but with cheap and readily available labor. I'm thinking Costa Rica, Coastal Nicaragua, or even Guatemala. Easy to transport the root to the states, cheap and expert agricultural laborers, rich volcanic soil and tropical climates...

The downside I see as most possible is that it could hurt the economies of the south pacific islands if it were successful.

At one point, I got some cuttings of Kava from Hawaii and was taking them to Ghana. Unfortunately, U.S Customs wouldn't allow me to get them out of the country. I think Kava would do very well in equatorial Africa. It would be a huge benefit to farmers there, and possibly even to the culture (as an alcohol substitute).

As for Pacific Island economies, they are generally pretty strong compared to most of the developing world. There are some countries like PNG, and much of Micronesia, that tend to have more issues due to land scarcity issues, lack of tourism, lack of fresh water access, etc.

 

[kavamehameha]

This seems to be what put GKE out of business?

No, that's not. This has legal reasons.

 

[violet]

@Kavasseur did you pack it in luggage or carry on?

 

[Kojo Douglas]

Carry on. Crazy, right?

 

[violet]

Haha it was worth a shot.

 

[Jerome]

At one point, I got some cuttings of Kava from Hawaii and was taking them to Ghana. Unfortunately, U.S Customs wouldn't allow me to get them out of the country. I think Kava would do very well in equatorial Africa. It would be a huge benefit to farmers there, and possibly even to the culture (as an alcohol substitute).

As for Pacific Island economies, they are generally pretty strong compared to most of the developing world. There are some countries like PNG, and much of Micronesia, that tend to have more issues due to land scarcity issues, lack of tourism, lack of fresh water access, etc.

Damn shame it doesn't grow by seed... Be a hell o f a lot easier to propagate!

 

[CactusKava]

@Gourmet Hawaiian Kava Why are there not more kava growers in Hawaii?

There are plenty of families growing a kava plant in their yard, but they're not full scale productions. There's only a few that I know of that are larger scale, and most only supply fresh 'awa to the kava bars in the islands. @Gourmet Hawaiian Kava could tell you more, of course.

 

[Deleted User01]

We propagate Elephant ears from shoots that pop up and you get a reasonable mature puppy, dig it up, put it in a small pot, and in a few months, it is ready for the ground. Same with Kava. The killer with Kava is that it takes 2-5 years for it to get massive enough to give enough root. Nothing good on this planet comes easy. And as Chris as often said, they don't like to be crowded. He spaces them way apart so that also cuts down on yield. It really makes you work for the root. I wonder how much kava a full grown plant provides. If you have 5 plants in your backyard, and you harvest them periodically, will 1 plant last the year? @Alia, you grow your own root. How many mature plants makes for a years supply?

 

[Kojo Douglas]

What's the spacing for Kavs?

 

[Deleted User01]

@Allia or @Gourmet Hawaiian Kava, what is the spacing for the Kavas that you guys grow. What do you think the farmers in Fiji or Vanuatua use for spacing?

 

[Jerome]

We propagate Elephant ears from shoots that pop up and you get a reasonable mature puppy, dig it up, put it in a small pot, and in a few months, it is ready for the ground. Same with Kava. The killer with Kava is that it takes 2-5 years for it to get massive enough to give enough root. Nothing good on this planet comes easy. And as Chris as often said, they don't like to be crowded. He spaces them way apart so that also cuts down on yield. It really makes you work for the root. I wonder how much kava a full grown plant provides. If you have 5 plants in your backyard, and you harvest them periodically, will 1 plant last the year? @Alia, you grow your own root. How many mature plants makes for a years supply?

The other issue is it being a lot harder to sneak a cutting through customs than seeds.