Pacific

Vanuatu launches national awareness campaign

19:18 pm on 5 September 2014

Vanuatu's Ministry of Agriculture has launched a national awareness campaign targetting kava production.

The campaign follows the decision to overturn a ban that had been in place since 2002 which stopped exports of Kava and Kava related products to Europe.

Vanuatu has more than 60 varieties of kava but only 10 of these are recommended for export.

The Agriculture Minister David Tosul says kava is an important cash crop for ni-Vanuatu and that the awareness campaign is aimed at avoiding future export bans:

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"Just to make sure that we don't lose the market again. As you know, in the past we have been doing some mistakes and there's a ban in Germany and Europe, we must learn the lesson from that."

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David Tosul says future steps will include introducing a director to train field staff, and ensuring security checks on exports.