In a collaboration with Pūhoro Stemm Academy, the partners hope to establish “enduring career pipelines” for rangatahi Māori through food science and mātauranga Māori.
Hayes, who also champions sustainable, organic growing practices, won the 2024 Entrepreneurial Māori Business Leader award, reflecting Torere’s impact on Māori enterprise and sustainable agribusiness in Aotearoa.
The roots of the new partnership go back to 2022, when she began exploring the potential value of macadamia husks and shells as sources of bioactive ingredients.
Her interest in the husks was sparked by an observation of animal behaviour.
“For many years the cows from neighbouring properties have been pushing down our fence to get to the macadamia husks,” she said.
“We wanted to understand what was attracting the cows, so we met up with experts at the Riddet Institute to see what’s there and how we might extract and use the valuable compounds in new innovations.”
Faruk Ahmed, supervised by Riddet Institute scientist Ali Rashidinejad, started a PhD research project to investigate macadamia husks, shells and leaves for bioactive compounds that could be used in functional food products or pharmaceutical supplements.
The results have demonstrated macadamia husks contain major phenolic compounds (a potent source of antioxidants) with considerable potential for future applications, the statement said.
Hayes said formalising the strategic partnership with the Riddet Institute was “a significant milestone”, adding to her decades of macadamia research in New Zealand.
“Together, through our research partner network, we can further secure New Zealand’s macadamia industry, deepen academic capability and fuel future discoveries towards developing unique new products, such as those for health and wellness, cosmetics and petfoods.
“We see this as a critical lever to empower Māori landowners and businesses, supporting the longevity of a sustainable and collaborative business sector through research and innovation in globally relevant food science.”
Riddet Institute’s acting director, Professor Paul Moughan, said they were delighted to collaborate with Torere “to explore new frontiers” in high-value food and ingredient development.
The partnership would promote local expertise and indigenous know-how, together with cutting-edge science, he said.
“This strategic partnership is a powerful example of how indigenous enterprise and advanced food science can work together to generate real economic and social impact.
“Macadamias present exciting opportunities for future foods and bioactive ingredients, and we are extremely proud to support the aspirations of Torere Macadamias Ltd and Māori capability building through research projects that connect young rangatahi to meaningful careers in food science.”
Hayes expects the partnership will lead to “unique new products” that extend Torere’s product range.
The company’s Cinnamon Glaze macadamias have been a business-class snack on Air New Zealand flights since 2024.
Torere’s head office and production hub is in Gisborne, while its orchard, nursery, dehusking and drying facilities are in the coastal settlement of Tōrere – east of Ōpōtiki.
The dehusking and drying process was relocated to Tōrere after Cyclone Gabrielle disrupted the business’s distribution in 2023.
