Founder, CEO and Managing Director Zane Yoshida (second from right) at the SupplySide Global event in Las Vegas in late October. (Photo: LinkedIn)
Fiji Kava is gaining shelf space in Australian supermarkets, but the biggest lift in its owner’s September quarter came from wholesale customers, most of them in the United States. The Calmer Co., a member of the Australia Fiji Business Council, reported record revenue of A$2.44 million for the three months to September, up 42 per cent from the previous quarter.
Wholesale and business-to-business revenue rose from A$306,000 to A$832,000, with the US accounting for about 91 per cent of that figure. Kava extracts made up 26 per cent of group revenue, compared with 16 per cent in the June quarter. That shift matters for Fiji because it creates a market for ingredients that can be processed locally and sold to overseas manufacturers.
In Australia, retail remained the larger of the two sales channels, rising 25 per cent to A$975,000. Sales of the existing Fiji Kava range rose 27 per cent at Coles and 33 per cent at Woolworths compared with the June quarter. Coles placed its first order for the Piña Colada-flavoured Fiji Kava FZZR in October, with a rollout planned for 583 stores. The September figures therefore reflect sales of the established range ahead of the new product’s arrival.
The US business takes a different route. At the SupplySide Global trade show in Las Vegas from 28 to 30 October, The Calmer Co. showed manufacturers and product developers bulk kava roots, powders and extracts. These ingredients can go into products sold under other companies’ brands, giving Pacific growers a route to customers who may never see a Fiji Kava pack on a supermarket shelf. The company said it was following up conversations from the show.
The question for Fiji is how much of that work can be done locally. A proposed partnership with Kaiming Agro Processing would add extraction capacity in Fiji. If US buyers place repeat orders, the partnership could allow more kava to be processed in Fiji before export. The September figures give some indication of the opportunity. The next few quarters will show whether wholesale orders are consistent enough to sustain that investment.
