Richard Loader, Business Central, Oct 2023
Operated through its commercial arm of Nāti Growth, Ngati Porou iwi currently employs twelve staff and a support team, looking after 3000 hives along the East Coast, spread over 100 separate apiary sites.
Those 3000 hives can create 60 tonnes of honey a year — and can be as high as 80 tonnes depending on the season.“It’s a great example of an authentic indigenous business model, while despite the Australians using the manuka brand, we’re creating a product that is not only indigenous to New Zealand, but also to the lands of our iwi, owned and operated by our people, while being sold across New Zealand and other parts of the world,’ says Nāti Growth’s CEO Henare Walker. “The operation provides those benefits and returns back to our community.”Ngati Porou has had direct involvement in the honey industry for over a decade, initially just as a land owner, then transitioning into hive ownership in 2015.
“Through this period, we recognised the commercial value of manuka honey, but at the time the reality was that over eighty percent of the hives collecting manuka honey on the East Coast were moved in from outside of the region. So, in 2020 we established our own apiary business on the Coast, two to threehours north of Gisborne, providing permanent employment in our communities.”Throughout the year the beekeepers manage the bee population and hive health, and come harvest time place the hives on key sites. “It is all about managing and timing the flowering of the manuka, and capturing as much of that period as we can. The hives are then taken to third party extraction and bottling facilities in Gisborne or Bay of Plenty, the honey is put into drums and either sold in bulk or bottled and freighted on to the end destination, as required. We have domestic sales, and currently some also goes into Japan.”
Henare acknowledges that operating a business on the East Coast is tough enough at the best of times given its remote location, but when you factor in the impact of very intensive and extreme weather events that have been experienced in the region over the last twelve months, it takes on a whole new level of commercial challenge.
“Honey extraction is a key target for us because the bulk of our hives are two hours north of Gisborne where the extraction process is currently done. Getting the honey from site to a facility for extraction and into the drum is quite time sensitive and if the external entities don’t have the capacity to take our honey we would be left in the lurch. So the next logical step and evolution in terms of vertical integration is the establishment of our own extraction facility, to get more control over that key part of the supply chain. Once the honey is in the drum and refrigerating you have the time to deal with the rest.”
Currently under construction, and targeting December 2023 for completion, Nāti Growth’s state of the art extraction facility will be located in Te Araroa, right in Ngati Porou land on the East Cape, close to its hives, and will take the iwi a step closer to vertical integration and supply chain stability.“So, it is not only about improving business outcomes and sustainability,” says Henare. “It has the added bonus of creating more jobs and economic activity within the region. Initially, the facility will create five to seven new jobs and as we bed that in, we will look at the potential to expand production and volume viaincreased hive numbers, which will increase both apiary and extraction jobs. Honey is one of the few industries on the East Coast, when you go north of Gisborne.“Following the cyclones, there has been a severe impact on forestry, so we need to ensure there are other sustainable options for people to continue to have jobs. The manuka honey industry has faced some challenges over the last few years, but that is beginning to stabilise and we see it as one of our keybusiness lines to grow from.”