Global Kava Exports
Kava Vendor
Dear Kava Enthusiasts,,
There are a lot of people on this forum under the impression that the ban in Europe has been lifted, this is not the case. There are still strict restrictions on the sale of Kava in Europe. Germany may have overturned their decision that Kava was dangerous but this does not mean that Kava is now totally unrestricted across Europe.
In May we were ordered by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland to shut down. We were threatened with seizure of goods and prosecution, the jail term mentioned by the authorities was substantial to say the least. The FSAI were made aware of our business by the BfArM in Germany just before the decision to overturn the ban in Germany. It seems it was one last shot across the bow before they had to admit they were wrong about Kava. Once the FSAI were involved they notified us that Kava was deauthorised as a Novel Food in Ireland (before this we had been informed that Kava was voluntarily removed from sale and was still authorised) and was not allowed to be exported from Ireland. We had to shut down with immediate effect and this impacted us badly, we could not ship Kava and we had to lay off staff as our income dropped off immediately.
We took legal advice at great cost to try and find a way around the FSAI order to cease trading but after several months of back and forth with no sign of budging by the FSAI we realised we could no longer operate in the Republic of Ireland. In the meantime, while the legal wrangling was ongoing, we moved our business to the UK. This was costly and to date we still have not been able to hire more staff so if you find your order gets sent a little slower these days that's the reason, we are operating with much less hands on board.
We did discuss attempting to overturn the Novel Food deauthorisation in Ireland but the costs would have been immense and the chances of success minimal. The possibility to have the restrictions on Kava overturned in the UK are more feasible. The costs of attempting this however are through the roof and much more than we can handle right now. We moved to the UK the first time so that we could get the orders to UK customers faster but we retreated to Ireland when we realised the UK was planning a new law against psychoactives due to the social problems being created by the Head Shop culture here. We did not want Kava to be confused with the synthetic drugs being sold in those stores and we did not want it banned completely because of the media witch hunt which generally lumps all substances in the one basket. Now we have returned to the UK because we were forced to by the FSAI but we have taken a QC on board, again costing huge amounts of money, to help us defend Kava. The proposed pyschactives law is to take effect in April 2016 but already there are problems with the legislation and there is a real chance of making a case against it and for Kava if we can manage to pay legal costs. So the plan in 2016 is to try to make unrestricted noble Kava in the UK a reality. We hope that with your help as customers and the help of Dr Mathias Schmidt and all his work we can make this dream a reality.
So we hope this has explained to you what has been going on here in the last year, we could not discuss it properly while legal exchanges were still taking place. Now we can explain the current situation.
It is very difficult to operate in Europe importing and distributing Kava. We cannot sell Kava for human consumption, it is not allowed to be imported or to be sold as a food or a medicine in the UK and there are numerous different restrictions on Kava across the continent. We cannot come on the forum and defend ourselves against accusations of Tudei etc when people post about their consumption of Kava because we do not sell Kava for consumption. Our Kava is not sold for human consumption and that is the only way we can continue to supply Kava. The absolute failure of some of the people on this forum to recognise that is more than troubling. We have moved country 3 times in the last 2 years, from the Republic of Ireland to the UK, back to the Republic again and now back to the UK once more where we are permanently situated now. All of this should show people how difficult it is to do this work in the EU. We are not looking for sympathy, we simply want people to realise that they cannot email us with reports of having consumed Kava and that they feel unwell. Any emails of this type in the future unfortunately have to be ignored and the senders of the emails will not have future orders fulfilled as to do so would be to admit on our part that we are aware customers are consuming the Kava we sell. In the past we advised customers to seek out medical attention if they felt unwell but this will no longer be the case, unfortunately you will be ignored and your account with us will be deleted.
Our Kava is sold as a research product only, it is meant to be used in the acetone test procedure to help make certain that when Kava is actually allowed to be sold in the EU without restrictions that the only Kava selected for supply will be noble. Customers are free to send their reports of test results to us to be collected and used for further research and data collecting. Samples of our new batch of Kava are en route to the True Kava lab for testing and Certificates of Analysis will be made available as soon as possible. We do our tests using an independent and trusted lab and you the customer can do your test, this is what the Kava is for.
We appreciate our customers and the support given to us by so many Kava enthusiasts across the globe but we must make it clear to everyone that it is not easy for us to operate, sometimes our processing of orders is slow but now you know why. We are not getting rich from selling Kava, we would love to, but currently that is not the case, any profits we have made over the last few years have been spent on moving location again and again and now on the legal side of things. We promise we will continue to strive to provide quality Kava to our customers and use the profits from our sales to further the cause of Kava in Europe.
Now we must also announce which countries we cannot sell Kava to, it is with deep regret that we can no longer ship to:
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Republic of Ireland
We are sorry but people from these countries can no longer order from us.
Vanuatu is still suffering from the aftermath of Cyclone Pam and we want to continue to support the Ni-Vans and we also want to ensure Kavas future in Europe. We hope our wonderful customers continue to be our customers and that we can make sure this wonderful plant is available to all and that the farmers and their communities benefit from their hard work. On saying that, we can no longer come to the forum and discuss Kava, it is most unfortunate because the forum is a great community and a home for Kava enthusiasts but because of our legal situation it just isn't worth the risk for us right now.
Thank you for all your support and we will still be there when you need us for your Kava supply and we hope to come back very soon when Kava is unrestricted in the future.
There are a lot of people on this forum under the impression that the ban in Europe has been lifted, this is not the case. There are still strict restrictions on the sale of Kava in Europe. Germany may have overturned their decision that Kava was dangerous but this does not mean that Kava is now totally unrestricted across Europe.
In May we were ordered by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland to shut down. We were threatened with seizure of goods and prosecution, the jail term mentioned by the authorities was substantial to say the least. The FSAI were made aware of our business by the BfArM in Germany just before the decision to overturn the ban in Germany. It seems it was one last shot across the bow before they had to admit they were wrong about Kava. Once the FSAI were involved they notified us that Kava was deauthorised as a Novel Food in Ireland (before this we had been informed that Kava was voluntarily removed from sale and was still authorised) and was not allowed to be exported from Ireland. We had to shut down with immediate effect and this impacted us badly, we could not ship Kava and we had to lay off staff as our income dropped off immediately.
We took legal advice at great cost to try and find a way around the FSAI order to cease trading but after several months of back and forth with no sign of budging by the FSAI we realised we could no longer operate in the Republic of Ireland. In the meantime, while the legal wrangling was ongoing, we moved our business to the UK. This was costly and to date we still have not been able to hire more staff so if you find your order gets sent a little slower these days that's the reason, we are operating with much less hands on board.
We did discuss attempting to overturn the Novel Food deauthorisation in Ireland but the costs would have been immense and the chances of success minimal. The possibility to have the restrictions on Kava overturned in the UK are more feasible. The costs of attempting this however are through the roof and much more than we can handle right now. We moved to the UK the first time so that we could get the orders to UK customers faster but we retreated to Ireland when we realised the UK was planning a new law against psychoactives due to the social problems being created by the Head Shop culture here. We did not want Kava to be confused with the synthetic drugs being sold in those stores and we did not want it banned completely because of the media witch hunt which generally lumps all substances in the one basket. Now we have returned to the UK because we were forced to by the FSAI but we have taken a QC on board, again costing huge amounts of money, to help us defend Kava. The proposed pyschactives law is to take effect in April 2016 but already there are problems with the legislation and there is a real chance of making a case against it and for Kava if we can manage to pay legal costs. So the plan in 2016 is to try to make unrestricted noble Kava in the UK a reality. We hope that with your help as customers and the help of Dr Mathias Schmidt and all his work we can make this dream a reality.
So we hope this has explained to you what has been going on here in the last year, we could not discuss it properly while legal exchanges were still taking place. Now we can explain the current situation.
It is very difficult to operate in Europe importing and distributing Kava. We cannot sell Kava for human consumption, it is not allowed to be imported or to be sold as a food or a medicine in the UK and there are numerous different restrictions on Kava across the continent. We cannot come on the forum and defend ourselves against accusations of Tudei etc when people post about their consumption of Kava because we do not sell Kava for consumption. Our Kava is not sold for human consumption and that is the only way we can continue to supply Kava. The absolute failure of some of the people on this forum to recognise that is more than troubling. We have moved country 3 times in the last 2 years, from the Republic of Ireland to the UK, back to the Republic again and now back to the UK once more where we are permanently situated now. All of this should show people how difficult it is to do this work in the EU. We are not looking for sympathy, we simply want people to realise that they cannot email us with reports of having consumed Kava and that they feel unwell. Any emails of this type in the future unfortunately have to be ignored and the senders of the emails will not have future orders fulfilled as to do so would be to admit on our part that we are aware customers are consuming the Kava we sell. In the past we advised customers to seek out medical attention if they felt unwell but this will no longer be the case, unfortunately you will be ignored and your account with us will be deleted.
Our Kava is sold as a research product only, it is meant to be used in the acetone test procedure to help make certain that when Kava is actually allowed to be sold in the EU without restrictions that the only Kava selected for supply will be noble. Customers are free to send their reports of test results to us to be collected and used for further research and data collecting. Samples of our new batch of Kava are en route to the True Kava lab for testing and Certificates of Analysis will be made available as soon as possible. We do our tests using an independent and trusted lab and you the customer can do your test, this is what the Kava is for.
We appreciate our customers and the support given to us by so many Kava enthusiasts across the globe but we must make it clear to everyone that it is not easy for us to operate, sometimes our processing of orders is slow but now you know why. We are not getting rich from selling Kava, we would love to, but currently that is not the case, any profits we have made over the last few years have been spent on moving location again and again and now on the legal side of things. We promise we will continue to strive to provide quality Kava to our customers and use the profits from our sales to further the cause of Kava in Europe.
Now we must also announce which countries we cannot sell Kava to, it is with deep regret that we can no longer ship to:
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Republic of Ireland
We are sorry but people from these countries can no longer order from us.
Vanuatu is still suffering from the aftermath of Cyclone Pam and we want to continue to support the Ni-Vans and we also want to ensure Kavas future in Europe. We hope our wonderful customers continue to be our customers and that we can make sure this wonderful plant is available to all and that the farmers and their communities benefit from their hard work. On saying that, we can no longer come to the forum and discuss Kava, it is most unfortunate because the forum is a great community and a home for Kava enthusiasts but because of our legal situation it just isn't worth the risk for us right now.
Thank you for all your support and we will still be there when you need us for your Kava supply and we hope to come back very soon when Kava is unrestricted in the future.
