February 26, 2019
Kahungunu all in for fish industry risk
Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones is welcoming the purchase by Ngāti Kahungunu Inc of Hawke's Bay Seafood.
The deal has been several years in the making, but was put on hold when the company was caught under reporting its catch.
Two directors and the general manager of the family-owned firm were sentenced yesterday and the company fined more than a million dollars.
Mr Jones, a former chair of Māori fisheries settlement trust Ngā Ohu Kaimoana, says it's time for the tribes to stop their focus on notions like mana whenua and mana moana and fully embrace their role in the seafood industry.
"Commerce knows no boundaries. Commerce respects those who take risks. Māoridom, if we want to prosper in commerce, we not only have to observe sustainabilty, we have to embrace the ability to take risk, manage risk, and not be islands to ourselves," he says.
Hawke's Bay Seafoods will be renamed Takitimu Seafoods.
Copyright © 2019, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com