Media Release – 16 September 2013
‘Ngāti Kahungunu harvesting our future’
Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi is developing an Export Strategy. As part of the wider Māori Economic Development Strategy, we are
increasing the export capacity of Māori farmers into the market, in other words from the ‘Nuku to the Puku’.
Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated and Wairoa Taiwhenua are hosting a Kahungunu Farming Conference at Takitimu Marae in Wairoa on Thursday 10th October 2013. The purpose of this Farming Conference is to bring together
Māori Farmers, Land owners, people who utilise primary resources and anyone else who might be interested in connecting,
exploring, sharing ideas and being a part of the Ngāti Kahungunu Export Strategy.
Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated is proposing that Ngāti Kahungunu Farmers and all Māori Farmers would be better off by
supplying directly to the market and retaining all the earnings in the supply chain rather than waving goodbye to the
animals and the profits at the farm gate.
Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated Chairman, Ngahiwi Tomoana says, “This would mean creating a Māori Brand in the market
place, telling our unique story and history in the Asia-Pacific region and reforging traditional links into Asia”. “It
would also involve training our own to take greater management of our own farms”, “All aspects will be considered from
the Agri science to finance, logistics, economics and marketing”,
“The practice of leasing out farms, and then being dictated to by meat processors, and then dealt to by the exporters
should be a thing of the past once we have a unified and fully integrated supply chain to the end user” said Mr Ngahiwi
Tomoana.
Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi’s recent purchase of the Tautane Farm was a footstep to creating a long footprint in the farming
sector and meat industry. Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated will be testing the appetite for growing a strategy at the
Wairoa hui and help stem the people outflow from Wairoa.
The Māori Economic Development Strategy, He Kai Kei Aku Ringa, provides an outline for a productive, innovative, and export-orientated Māori economy that will support better paying
jobs and higher living standards. The successful implementation of He Kai Kei Aku Ringa is dependent on Māori organisations and the private sector working together with government to identify resources to
build on the capability needed to grow and develop resources.
Ngāti Kahungunu is the third largest iwi comprising 9% of the total Māori descent population (2006 Census).
Geographically the tribe has the second longest coastline in the country, from the Paritū near the Wharerata ranges in
the northern Wairoa District to Turakirae in Southern Wairarapa.
ENDS