In response to last weekend’s reports of complaints about allegedly “tainted” kava, Vanuatu-based exporter Peter Colmar has provided clear scientific evidence that the product he provided to American suppliers is “noble” and shows no trace of tainting.

When the Vanuatu Daily Post shared these results with Agriculture Minister Matai Seremaiah, he replied: “The results submitted to me today will be shared to our officials for assessment.”

In a follow-up telephone call, he applauded Colmar’s efforts to defend the good name of his company.

At the heart of last weekend’s article was a complaint from an American source about the quality of kava allegedly supplied by Sarami, Colmar’s Santo-based kava export operation.

The complaint originated from a letter written by Garry Stoner, founder of Pure Kava, a kava advocacy group.

Stoner wrote to Starwest Botanicals, an herb wholesaler/retailer based in Sacramento, California, founded in 1975. Stoner’s letter included a chemical analysis, which he claimed was derived from a 2015 test of the company’s retail kava powder product.

Part of the analysis consisted, he said, of what is known as an HPLC chromatogram. The letter claims to show signs of Chlorophyll A, which is only found in leaves.

Stoner wrote that so-called “aerial” matter was present in the sample—leaves, twigs and skin, for example—that contain “pipermethystine, an alkaloid with a known history of toxicity”.

Warehouse visit
Another component of the story alleged that Colmar was responsible for “drowning” the US market with what is colloquially known as “two-day” kava. The basis of this complaint was a visit paid to Colmar’s warehouse by kava proponent Mathias Schmidt.

Dr Schmidt holds post-doctoral qualifications in plant biology and is a leading advocate for the safe and responsible marketing of kava in the European Union.

In the article, Dr Schmidt alleged that approximately 60 tons of kava tainted with “two day” varieties had been shipped to the United States recently. He listed four companies, Kumars Import, Naturex Inc, Concentrated Alie Corps, and Starwest Botanicals, as recipients.

The Daily Post requested further documentation concerning these other companies, but received only bill of lading records for the Kumars, Naturex and Concentrated Alie shipments. The accusation, it transpired, was based on a single sample from Starwest.

Following the publication of the article, Colmar angrily and vehemently rejected these accusations as “lies”. He asserted that Dr Schmidt’s allegations of “two day” kava dated back to a visit to his Santo warehouse “5-7 years ago”.

At the time, Colmar said, he provided Dr Schmidt with two samples, at least one of which was known to contain impurities. Colmar stated that he provided the knowingly tainted material in order to dissuade local farmers from attempting to bulk out their product with substandard material.

Presented with Stoner’s chemical analysis, Colmar responded with two separate analyses. One was supplied by Root of Happiness, a California-based kava supplier. The other was supplied by Starwest, the company that received the original complaint from Stoner.

Calm, euphoric feeling
Both the Root of Happiness and Starwest analyses show clear indications of kavalactones, the chemical component of kava that provides the calm, euphoric feeling that makes kava so popular.

Neither of the samples showed any sign of Chlorophyll A, nor did they show any signs of Flavokavain, a chemical compound present in so-called “two day” kava varieties.

As the Daily Post continued its investigation of the complaints and followed up extensively with Colmar and his representatives, a number of key facts became clear:

There is no direct link between the allegedly adulterated Starwest sample and Colmar’s kava.

According to the Stoner’s letter, the sample was obtained from a customer, who presumably bought the retail product either online or in a shop.

Starwest purchases kava from multiple suppliers, so even if that particular batch of kava did contain impurities—which Colmar insists is not the case—it does not follow that they originated from Colmar’s Santo operation.

The Starwest analysis, by contrast, is based on a shipment received from Colmar. The test was conducted months after Stoner’s analysis, but on the same dried powder product. It unambiguously shows that Colmar’s kava is “noble” and without “aerial” components.

Identical results
The Root of Happiness analysis shows identical results.

Both analyses were certified. According to a CV supplied following a request from the Daily Post, Stoner has no formal certifications relevant to the conduct of these tests. He has written one paper and made at least one presentation on the topic, however.

Colmar claims that Stoner’s equipment is antiquated and sub-par. When we asked Stoner to tell us more about his operations and methodology, he declined to provide any detail, stating only: “Analyses were made with state of the art instrumentation.”

Addressing the accusation that Colmar’s export operation was using the Palisi variety of kava, which he labelled a “two day” variety, Dr Schmidt was adamant.

In an early response to the Daily Post, Dr Schmidt wrote: “I have been in Peter Colmar’s warehouse myself, saw the piles of two-day material for myself, took a sample of his peelings, and could demonstrate that this was Palisi.”

Asked about this, Colmar replied that this visit took place “5-7 years ago”, before Dr Vincent Lebot had even formalised the concept of two-day kava, and long before any regulation or legislation was in place controlling its export.

He further stated that “an independent Santo kava exporter has had Palisi tested by the Vanuatu food lab and the result was noble, so either the classification of this kava type is wrong or the testing is not reliable”.

Visit happened in 2011
Only when asked specifically about the timing of his visit did Dr Schmidt admit that it took place in 2011, supporting Colmar’s version of events.

Colmar told the Daily Post he had concluded that Dr Schmidt was not acting in good faith, and he was considering his legal options.

Given the information obtained in our follow-up to this story, and based on numerous lengthy conversations with the parties concerned, it is now clear that, despite a good faith effort to contact the company for comment, the Daily Post did not present a complete picture in its original story.

This newspaper has sent emails containing the additional chemical analyses to Ambassador Joy, to Biosecurity and to Minister Matai Seremaiah, and asked them whether they still maintain their original opinion of the Santo-based kava exporter.

The Minister of Agriculture replied: “I am not a scientist to evaluate the results provided. However, my position as minister for MALFFB, if the exported kava is of good quality then there is no need for VCMB to cancel his/her licence.

“Every exporter must understand the difficulty of getting the kava cleared in the EU etc. and the least they could do is support the government to ensure only good quality if purchased from the farmers and to be exported.

“The ministry will be getting hard on those exporters who intentionally export low quality kava once the Kava [Act] Amendment is gazetted next week. In many occasions our staff at bio security were threatened while on duty to carry out quality checks. This has to stop.

“As long as the exporter (Sarami) complies with our laws and regulations, there will be no need for cancellation of their licence.”

‘Clean’ test testimonials
According to testimonials received by the Daily Post, Colmar is a supplier with a sterling reputation, whose products test “clean” on a consistent and regular basis. Any suggestion that his operation is not operating to a high standard is not supported by the evidence now in our possession.

The Daily Post sincerely apologises if readers inferred anything else from last week’s article. We regret that these mitigating and exculpatory facts were not available at the time the original article was printed.

Furthermore, we thank Colmar and his son Chris for their positive and helpful engagement in setting the record straight.

The Daily Post will report further on allegations of unequal treatment of kava suppliers, and will provide updates concerning reactions to the new data by public officials as and when they become available.

Dan McGarry is editorial director of the Vanuatu Daily Post. This article was published today in response to an earlier article published by the Daily Post and Asia Pacific Report.

Tess Newton Cain: We need a new law about kava … or do we?

The writing is on the wall for the fate of Peter Colmar’s kava exporting company, Sarami Plantation, now that the Minister of Agriculture, Matai Seremaiah has said: “I strongly recommend that the Vanuatu Commodities Marketing Board (VCMB) terminate his export licence forthwith”.

READ MORE: New data dispels reports of ‘tainted’ kava fears

The minister sent the short instruction to the Acting Director-General (ADG) of Trade, George Borugu, this week.

The minister recommended to the ADG to ask the board to take drastic steps to deal with Sarami Plantation in the face of growing concerns abroad, especially from Dr Mathias Schmidt in Germany and the Vanuatu Ambassador to the European Union, Roy Mickey Joy, in Brussels, both of whom fought tooth and nail to successfully defend the Pacific kava-producing countries’ export market in Europe.

Their tireless commitments since the kava ban in 2001, finally resulted in the ruling by the German Administrative Court to lift the kava ban in 2014.

In his urgent email to Ambassador Joy this week, Dr Schmidt wrote: “Today on Tuesday, January 10, I received a complaint from the US: they are being drowned in two-day kava, all exported from Peter Colmar in Santo. He is operating as ‘Sarami Plantation’, shipping ground, leaves and stalks as ‘kava’ to the US via New Zealand.”

Dr Schmidt listed the following export figures for 2016:

• Kumars Import: 25.82 tons

• Naturex Inc.: 24.52 tons

• Concentrated Alie Corps.: 7.02 tons and

• Starwest Botanicals: 2 tons

Dr Schmidt explained: “That’s almost 60 tons of non-noble non-root material sold as kava in 2016 by just one exporter. I thought the Vanuatu Kava Act had been changed, but if someone like Sarami Plantation can sell such quantities without any consequences, there must be more than just one person closing their eyes.

‘Next catastrophe’
“We need to stop this before the next catastrophe happens.”

In his letter to the Director of Biosecurity, Ambassador Joy wrote: “I am shocked and alarmed by the way and the manner in which Mr Peter Colmar has continued to conduct his shipment with ‘blind eyes’ from your staff and even those in the Customs and Border Controls.

“I am lost for words but can only compel the way and the easy manner by which the ‘Sarami Plantation’ has continued to effectively trade its kava shipment against all odds and without any sense of regularity control or SPS from our authorities.”

Ambassador Joy said he was disappointed that he and his exceptional team had spent six solid years and substantial resources to eventually revive the kava trade in Europe, only for one company to come in and destroy everything by exporting trash instead of noble kava.

He continued: “I am appealing to you to launch a swift investigation into the conduct of ‘Sarami Plantation’ and withdraw its export licence as soon as possible.”

The ambassador also copied his letter to the Prime Minister’s Office.

Meanwhile, the owner of the export company, Peter Colmar, lives in China and is understood to visit Vanuatu on a regular basis.

No call back
The Daily Post called Sarami Plantation in Luganville to speak to someone responsible concerning the reports leveled at the company.

In the latest development, all kava growers and exporters have from now until the end of next month to clean up their operations and cease for good, from the sale or export of two-day kava or kava mixed with ‘makas’ (adulterated kava).

The new Kava Export Standard is going to come into force on March 1 and all kava exporters are expected to comply with it.

The Biosecurity Director has already given the warning to all kava farmers and exporters from Luganville and Port Vila. He is reiterating the warning again because he has received pictures of dishes of ‘makas’ from his officers in Luganville only two days ago.

The director said: “My officers went to a particular nakamal and found kava ‘makas’ placed on the roof to dry. When they asked why, the owner confirmed a company is buying the ‘makas’ for export.”

He said Sarami Plantation is reported to be buying and mixing kava ‘makas’ with real kava for export to the United States.

The report has already reached the European Union.

Appeal to government
Asked to comment, he replied: “We at Biosecurity are appealing to the government to gazette the Kava Act Amendment of 2015 to give us extra-legal enforcement power to enforce kava export.

“While the existing law already provides us with legal power, we need the extra legal backing to put stricter control measures against farmers and exporters and other people for that matter, in particular owners of kava bars who sell ‘makas’ to the exporters”.

As of the middle of next month, all farmers are warned to stop selling two-day kava to buyers for local consumption and kava exporters.

The new law comes into effect on March 1 and if kava farmers and exporters are caught still selling and exporting two-day kava, the Director of Biosecurity reiterated that they would go one step further by blacklisting those farmers by advising exporters not to buy anymore kava from them.

“We are prepared to take such drastic measures to clean up the industry of kava export”, he confirmed.

Len Garae is a senior Vanuatu Daily Post journalist.

• New data dispels Vanuatu reports of ‘tainted’ kava fears – Vanuatu Daily Post