by Tusi Tala, Staff Writer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vanuatu’s caretaker Foreign Minister Matai Seremaiah has stated that regional labor mobility programs are affecting the local kava industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He noted that the influx of Ni-Vanuatu workers taking seasonal jobs abroad has diminished the local workforce available for kava farming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Farmers need assurance of a market to encourage planting,” he remarked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“However, for planting to persist, we also require labor. If we keep sending workers overseas, it will create significant challenges for local kava production.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An analysis has indicated that Vanuatu, alongside Samoa and Tonga, is a major supplier of labor under New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) work policy, with 16,250 individuals from Vanuatu participating in the scheme from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, Vanuatu is a leading labor-exporting country under Australia’s Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, having sent over 6,200 workers from June 2019 to May 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Vanuatu Daily Post reports that exporters are also worried about a lack of supply, as demand for kava has surged to record levels in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Discussions at a recent Kava Festival prompted consideration of whether the government should reassess its stance on foreign investment amid these challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Current policy restricts foreign investors from entering the kava sector to safeguard local farmers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Tusi Tala, Staff Writer Vanuatu’s caretaker Foreign Minister Matai Seremaiah has stated that regional labor mobility programs are affecting the local kava industry. He noted that the influx of Ni-Vanuatu workers taking seasonal jobs abroad has diminished the local workforce available for kava farming. “Farmers need assurance of a market to encourage planting,” he…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":571,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-vanuatu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pacificislands.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}