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A Māori banker says the Maori economy is on track to top $100 billion by 2030.
Anthony Ririnui, the head Māori services for ASB Bank, says many āaori entities are doing well, especially the long-established whenua trusts.
He says over the past decade the āaori economy has been growing at over 10 percent a year, which is faster than the general economy.
Economists BERL put the Māori economy at about $68 billion in 2018, including $40 billion tied up in more than 10,000 firms with Māori owners, $9 billion from 18,000 self-employed Māori, and $21 billion from land trusts, incorporations and iwi organisations who have $14 billion invested in the primary sector.
He sees a shift from the traditional focus on farming, forestry and fishing.
“We’ve seen a real move to high value horticulture, obviously the growth of kiwifruit in the Bay of Plenty and avocadoes in the north and also berries with Miro across the motu, so high value horticulture has been a real focus of the Māori economy,” Mr Ririnui says.
He’s also seeing an upswing in housing, both from iwi and Māori organisations getting involved in large social housing builds and also at whānau and hapū level building papakainga.
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