A new digital platform publicly launched last week aims to connect Fijian kava farmers directly with buyers from around the world.
Yaqona.net is set to cut additional costs of wholesalers by giving growers of the Pacific native plant their own verifiable identity in an untapped potential market.
Farmer Eliki Dakuitoga is driving the commercial revolution around how kava — a plant native to the South Pacific — is being sold outside of a Fijian iTaukei cultural market through the growing acceptance of online technology.
Mr Dakuitoga believed the digital platform addresses a long-standing problem among most the farmers.
While Fiji has hundreds of various kava brands, many farmers have still had difficulties in reaching the right buyers in the international market.
The network's platform delivers each grower their own online identification, profile page and QR code to streamline the process by directly connecting farmers to online markets.
"We understand today that yaqona is not only just a drink anymore," Mr Dakuitoga said. "It's income, it's business, and it's one of Fiji's major commodities."
Fijian kava growers have earned around $A175 million from online sales collectively, with a substantial amount of capital driven back into the national economy and the industry.
There are plans for the platform to have an interactive map, which would inform online users where yaqona was grown and detailed information about the product's use.
Yaqona is a strictly Fijian term for kava, whereby Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu and the Caroline Islands call their own kava product by a different cultural name.
The project the first of five undisclosed initiatives the cooperative partnership is looking to develop amid big plans.
Mr Dakuitoga has been "working closely with farmers and small kava brands across Fiji" to help develop their own packaging, branding and market access.
So far more than 200 small kava brands have been supported while building what Mr Dakuitoga calls the Yaqona Origin Network to protect Fiji's identity in the global kava industry.
"I joined this online forum mainly to learn from the wider kava community, understand how kava is experienced in other countries, and share perspectives from the producing side here in Fiji," he said.
Yaqona.net has developed over several months by a unified coalition of strictly Fijian-owned businesses, allowing farmers and growers, traders and industry supporters to expand their interests further.
The digital platform offers three unique membership types: for producers (farmers and growers), traders (wholesalers, retailers, exporters and importers), and ecosystem partners including non-government organisations, researchers, and financiers/investors.
During the initial public testing phase of the platform, membership remained free of charge.
An earlier fundraising version of the cooperative, which was tested only on Facebook, required two separate small fees for Fijian-only members and for overseas members.
"I've recently joined the (online) forum, and I'm really glad to see a global community discussing kava," Mr Dakuitoga said.
"For us in Fiji, yaqona is more than just a drink: it's deeply connected to our culture, ceremonies, and everyday social life.
"Many of us refer to it as wai ni vanua - the drink of the people."
Kava as a traditional cultural crop and growing export product is in the top five Fijian commercial industries behind other leading earners, including tourism and commercial fishing.
It is widely used domestically in a social and cultural context, while also being exported across a number of other Pacific markets and the herbal supplement industry worldwide.
Kava cultivation has expanded in importance through its drink, especially as the global demand for natural relaxation and herbal products continued to rise.
Mr Dakuitoga encouraged kava producers, traders, industry supporters and all other partnering interests to provide ongoing feedback at Yaqona.net.
"We will learn and develop along the way, as we usually do," he said.
