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Download AudioA Māori entrepreneur is looking for international markets for drinks made with rongoā like kawakawa and kumarahou.
Reni Wereta-Gargiulo from Nelson-based Kiwi Kai says she hasn’t looked back since creating the Atutahi range by adding lemon and lime to the bitter leaves and carbonating the result.
She had help from University of Otago scientists to come up with sugar-free versions of the drinks, and the ingredients are mostly sourced from whānau land in the Marlborough Sounds and harvested with appropriate Tikanga.
She’s currently on a sales trip to Queensland’s Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast.
“We have our drinks in the markets. I’m actually over here trying to find outlets. That’s proving to be a little bit difficult purely because of the name of the drink and the leaf and people don’t understand for starters, but it will work, we will make it work,” Ms Wereta-Gargiulo says.
The business has been helped by South Island whānau ora commissioning agency Te Pūtahitanga and the international women’s business network She-E-O.
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