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Pacnews
Mon, 24 Sep 2007
SUVA, FIJI ---- European bans on kava products have cost the Pacific Islands more than $US1 billion in the past six years, now a regional NGO is calling for the industry to be re-opened.
Based in Suva, the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), says a new World Health Organisation (WHO) report shows kava exports to Europe can be safely resumed.
PANG coordinator Roshni Sami said the WHO report indicates pharmaceutical products made from kava are safe.
“The report shows what people in the Pacific have known for thousands of years,” said Ms Sami.
“That moderate use of kava is perfectly safe.”
Ms Sami said the WHO report recommended safety provisions should apply to the sale of kava-products, but this did not mean that they should be banned outright.
“The European authorities have been dragging their feet on this issue,” said Ms Sami.
“There are far more dangerous products freely available throughout Europe, like cigarettes and alcohol.
“PANG is highlighting this issue to illustrate how significant non-tariff barriers can be to Pacific products in the export market,” said Ms Sami.
“The Pacific has effectively had duty free and quota free access to the EU market since 1975 yet we still export predominantly raw commodities – sugar and tuna, part of the reason we do not have more value-added processing, and more jobs in the Pacific is because of these complex non-tariff barriers.
“The European Union is constantly lecturing developing countries that they should be creating export industries to lift people out of poverty, yet they place this giant barrier to kava exports, and what could be a big growth industry for the Pacific.”
The head of the Fiji Kava Council, Ratu Josateki Nawalowalo agrees.
“There is a lot of talk about addressing poverty, and here we are, sitting on a commodity that we know is worth hundreds of millions of dollars each year,” said Mr Nawalowalo.
“We really need to be campaigning hard to have the kava bans in Europe lifted, and we need to be preparing ourselves for the prospect of kava exports being a big part of industry in Fiji.
Mr Nawalowalo said if kava-bans were eased, kava producing nations in the Pacific have enough kava “in the ground” to meet international demand for just one year.
The main kava producing nations are Fiji, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu, with Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands contemplating coming on board.
Mr Nawalowalo suggested kava exports could become a very important industry as Fiji’s sugar industry faces continuing hardship.
“Kava is a very dynamic product with lots of uses,” said Mr Nawalowalo.
“So there is plenty of opportunity for the industry to expand.
“We [the Pacific kava producers] could be earning anywhere between $US500 million and $US1 billion each year if these kava bans hadn’t been put in place.”
Mr Nawalowalo said he would be travelling to Berlin in coming weeks to meet with German health officials, and he hoped to put the case for lifting the ban on kava trade to them.
He will also be meeting with EU/ACP trade officials in Brussels to explain that European trade restrictions on kava are unfair and discriminatory.
Why is kava banned?
To understand why kava exports to Europe face such tough market restrictions, effectively acting as a continued ban, it is important to look into the recent history of kava products.
It is widely known that Pacific Islanders have grown and used kava (piper methysticum) as a safe herbal preparation for over 2000 years.
Kava has been used in cultural and religious ceremonies, and as a social drink.
Kava is known to have several effects on the human body, including acting as a sedative, an analgesic (painkiller), anticonvulsive, and even as an antimycotic (kills fungal growths).
It has even been suggested that kava could be used to combat hair-loss, and as a dieting pill.
This range of uses saw kava become a very popular herb during the 1990s, a time when kava exports grew dramatically.
Exports grew by 478% in 1997-98 alone, and by the end of the decade, kava exports were worth more than $US200 million each year.
In the US, kava was sold primarily as a food supplement, while in Europe, kava-products were sold as pharmaceuticals to treat conditions like anxiety and insomnia.
In 2002 the industry received a massive setback, when the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medicinal Devices (BfArM) revoked licences to sell kava-based products.
BfArM claimed there were (very rare) cases of liver damage associated with kava-products.
Other countries in Europe also banned kava after this decision, and countries around the world issued strong warnings to consumers.
Almost overnight, the Pacific kava export industry ground to a virtual halt.
Cases of liver toxicity associated with kava-products – cited by BfArM – were contested by medical professionals around the world, with many pointing to contributing factors such as alcohol, co-medication and pre-existing medical conditions.
Dr Subramaniam Sotheeswaran, Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of the South Pacific, is one of the co-authors of the recent WHO report on kava-products and liver toxicity.
He says the links between kava-products and liver injury have never been proved.
“Even in the cases where there are links between kava-products and liver injury, those links are questionable,” said Dr Sotheeswaran.
“And all reported cases are linked with very particular methods for extracting the active components of kava.
“Water based extraction methods for kava-products have never been linked with liver injury.”
The German ban on kava-products took into account rare cases of liver injury, and a relative lack of rigorous scientific testing on the benefits of kava.
In principle, this means that if the benefits of kava – the way kava helps with conditions like anxiety – was proved with more rigorous testing, kava-products would have what’s called a positive risk-benefit ratio.
In 2005, BfArM acknowledged this with a review of the 2002 kava bans, providing very strict guidelines that would allow the re-introduction of kava into their market.
But Ratu Nawalowalo says these regulations are effectively a continuation of the kava bans.
“These are just words really,” said Mr Nawalowalo.
“They are saying that major tests are required to prove that kava works to do things like calm the body. “The tests they want could take decades and would cost millions of dollars to carry out.”
Time to end the trade ban
The July 2007 World Health Organisation (WHO) report indicating kava products can be safely sold to the public – with a few important safety provisions – has yet to be heeded by European countries with market restrictions on kava.
Dr Sotheeswaran says it is completely hypocritical to ban kava products when products like alcohol and cigarettes are freely available the world over.
“Excessive alcohol consumption can cause cirrhosis of the liver and continued tobacco use can cause liver cancer,” Said Dr Sotheeswaran.
“Even products like Ibuprofen, a common anti-inflammatory medication, are freely available over-the-counter.
“Ibuprofen has a record of seven cases of acute liver injury per million prescriptions, while kava has just 0.23 questionable cases of liver injury per million doses.”
Dr Sotheeswaran said the WHO recommendations on kava-products would not be nearly as difficult to match (by Pacific producers) as the current requirements in Europe.
He said countries in the European Union (EU) could not be “compelled” to ease market restrictions, but he said they certainly should.
“They should allow Pacific Island Countries to export kava products into their markets – following the guidelines established by the WHO,” said Dr Sotheeswaran.
“It is plainly unfair not to do so.”
Ms Sami said she “couldn’t agree more.”
“The time has come for the EU to stop destroying a dynamic export industry for the Pacific,” said Ms Sami.
“The EU needs to show that it is actually a ‘partner’ for development in the Pacific.”
A symbolic kava ceremony to urge fair trade between the EU and the Pacific is planned for Thursday, September 27. With local kava industry representatives, fair trade advocates, and EU representatives invited to attend.
September 27th is a global call to action to highlight unfair trade negotiations currently going on between the EU and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, in the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
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