March 01, 2017
Pounamu seals Bay kiwifruit deal
Tauranga’s Ngai Tukairangi Trust has finalised its $40 million acquisition of five Hawkes Bay kiwifruit orchards by holding the handover ceremony at Omahu Marae in Hastings.
The trust is a leader in the kiwifruit industry, and says the puchase of the 67 hectare Fernhill property from the Eriksen family will allow it to double in size and diversify outside its base on the Matapihi Peninsula.
The orchards 12 kilometres north-west of Hastings are in their third year of producing SunGold, and have the potential to produce up to a million trays a year.
Ngati Kahungunu chair Ngahiwi Tomoana says the deal has opened up opportunities for local hapu, which yesterday’s powhiri acknowledged.
"200 people there. 2 busloads from Tauranga, 100 people from the haukainga coming together and there wasn't a tuupaapaku in sight. It was a business deal on a marae sealed with a pounamu a sharing of pounamu of koha," he says.
Ngahiwi Tomoana says coming straight after Ngati Kahungunu’s Taniwha Dragon economic conference and Te Matatini, the deal emphasised how Maori bring a cultural dimension to business in Aotearoa.
FULL INTERVIEW WITH NGAHIWI TOMOANA
http://www.waateanews.com/play_podcast?podlink=NTE0NDQ=
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