August 05, 2020
Sweet spot sought for honey factory
A collective of East Coast Māori landowners and beekeepers has secured a matching loan of up to $2 million from the Provincial Growth Fund to build a honey processing factory.
Ngāti Porou Holding Company chief executive Shayne Walker says a suitable site is being sought between Ruatoria and Te Araroa.
He says the COVID-19 crisis has increased the demand for manuka honey as a health supplement, and the factory will allow producers in the rohe to harvest more of the value.
The Ngāti Porou Tairāwhiti Miere Collective is holding a series of hui along the coast this week to share its plans and get indications of support from more producers and land blocks.
"Amongst the collective, we have so many thousand hives, there's other beekeepers and other organisations in and along the East Coast and we just want to create a Ngāti Porou miere focus and kaupapa and allow Ngāti Porou whānau whānui to join that. If that occurs, the scale builds quickly and we imagine we can go to market with some of the sweetest honey in the world," Mr Walker says.
Shane Walker says the advantage Ngāti Porou honey producers have is the big blocks of bush with no competing farming nearby.
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