Market Price Attracts Kadavu Yaqona Farmers

Yaqona farmers are going for the best market price, said a former school teacher from Tavuki, Ka­davu.

Ruca Senitovu said yaqona plantations in Tavuki were severely damaged by Tropical Cyclone Sarai.

She said they were happy with the buy­ing price of one of the villagers, Taitusi Cakaunitavuki, who works at the Bank South Pacific (BSP) Life in Suva.

Mr Cakaunitavuki buys grog for $100 a kilogram for waka and $80 a kilogram for the flesh (lewena).

“Yaqona farmers are happy with the price,” she said.

Ms Senitovu and her family had gone to their village to harvest their yaqona plants.

She said they would replant the yaqona plants before they harvest again in the next three years.

Ms Senitovu added earnings from the sale of yaqona would be used for back to school shopping.

Another village in Kadavu that had their yaqona plants damaged by TC Sarai was Qalira village.

“All the yaqona farms on the island are damaged and this included the one-year to the three-year-old ones,” Villager Em­ani Saumadu said.

Mr Saumadu said their yaqona sup­plies were back to normal after Tropical Cyclone Winston struck Fiji in 2016, but now they had to start from scratch.

“All the banana trees and breadfruit trees were damaged so our food security will be affected and cassava are rotten as well.”

In terms of food supply, he said, they had enough and a government team would visit Kadavu to carry out their survey on the destructive impact of TC Sarai.

Edited by Ivamere Nataro

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