It has been established that some local kava suppliers are exporting Vanuatu kava labelled as Fijian-Made Products.

This was revealed by the Standing Committee chair on Natural Resources, Joeli Cawaki, during a meeting on the Kava Bill 2016 submissions in Parliament on Wednesday.

He said the issue was raised when the committee was conducting public consultations on the Bill.

Mr Cawaki said local kava suppliers had been importing kava from Vanuatu; packaged them locally as Fijian-Made Products before it was exported.

He said it was one of the issues that the Bill wished to address, if it was passed.

“Whatever yaqona that goes out of Fiji should be Fiji kava because of the quality and the standard; we don’t want to export sub-standard commodities,” Mr Cawaki said.

He said if the Bill was passed a council would be established to review the standard, packaging, and labelling.

They would also make sure that whatever was exported from Fiji was genuine Fijian kava.

Edited by Rusiate Mataika

Feedback:  arieta.vakasukawaqa@fijisun.com.fj