The VPPA was advised on the afternoon of Thursday 7th July 2022, the Australian High Commission to Vanuatu wanted to include in her Santo trip, a visit to a VPPA member.

The member should be one of the recipients of the joint assistance of the solar drier technology provided by the VPPA and PHAMA Plus in January of this year. The CEO of the VPPA, one of his staff and the Country Manager of PHAMA Plus had to charter a flight to get them to Luganville on Monday 11 July to prepare the farmer and people of Vimele Village to receive the High Commissioner the following day.

The village head clansman, Chief Martin Levu, long fasin blong ol manples, eloquently welcomed Her Excellency Mrs. Heidi Bootle to his village. He stated that Her Excellency was the first dignitary to visit him and his people. The head clansman also said he carried his people’s voice and that of the ten other surrounding villages when he was remarked that they have some much kava and other resources, but these cannot be sold because there are no access roads to the inner parts of South Santo. They need at least an eight (8) kilometer rood into the interior from his village to allow the other villages to bring their products to the market.

Her Excellency thanked the Chief and his people for receiving her delegation and to be there to listen to their stories. She mentioned the trial export of kava to Australia opened up a market which Vanuatu is also benefitting from.

The Chief’s son, Mr. Livo Rongo, was able to show the delegation his drier and tell their story of how he gets his kava. He demonstrated how the kava is processed prior to and during drying to get the desired quality. “I completed my own drier two weeks after the training, and I also went around to replicate the technology in the other villages”, Mr. remarked Rongo.

“My kava is supplied by ten villages. These villages are situated in the hinterland and upper plateaus of South Santo. They have so much kava to supply but, they can each carry only 10 to 15 kg at a time because some trek some four to six hours to get here. We have tried using horses but even these animals get stuck in the muddy pools and become extremely hard to work with”, stated Mr. Rongo.” The solar drier has helped us tremendously to sell our products in Luganville”, said the Farmer.

“Thanks to the simple technology, we don’t have to go and drop our kava at the exporter’s facility and wait until late in the afternoon to get paid. This time they weight and pay the moment I walk onto their premises because they like the quality of our dried kava”, said Farmer Rongo.