A Northland student company can count the nation's Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister among its customers.
Springbank School students Noah Atchison-Darby and Nikki Chapman, of Kerikeri, travelled to Wellington last month for the national finals of the Young Enterprise Scheme (Yes).
Their firm, The Cashew Company, imports nuts from a development project in Maziotela, a town in the southeast African state of Mozambique. The newly built cashew nut processing plant in Maziotela employs more than 160 people.
In Kerikeri the nuts are made into honey-roasted cashews and cashew nut butter at a certified commercial kitchen.
Noah and Nikki received the NZ Aid Award for a product solving a problem in a developing country at the December 11 awards night, which included guests Governor-General Sir Jerry Mateparae and Finance Minister Bill English.
During the evening Mr English, who is apparently fond of nuts, invited the Springbank students to the Beehive the following day so he could buy a jar of their cashew nut butter.
One dollar from every sale is donated to the New Zealand World Outreach programme that helped build the factory in Maziotela, thereby funding further projects in the village.
Also at the finals in Wellington were Sophie Sutherland and Rachel Draper of Kerikeri High School, whose company Distinctiv Records won the award for excellence in enterprising music; Northland winner Nick Fewtrell, whose firm Innoluminate makes glow-in-the-dark stickers for light switches; and Steve James and Belinda Peddie of Northland Yes sponsor Top Energy.