The soaring price of corned beef – a Samoan gifting tradition at major community events – is pushing families into debt. Pasifika editor Vaimoana Mase explains how the change could force a rethink of customary practices.
Corned beef may seem like a routine meal or sandwich choice for many Kiwi families, but for Samoans and other Pasifika communities it means so much more.
It’s traditional to give boxes of pisupo (the Samoan word for corned beef) at big community events – sometimes up to 50, or even 100, boxes at a time.
But the increasingly high cost of the pisupo boxes, which contain 24 small cans of corned beef, has pushed more families to reconsider their approach to cultural obligations in a bid to lessen the financial burden.
A box of 24 Pacific-brand 340g corned beef cans now costs about $200 at supermarkets. Early last year it was about $150. Two years ago, the boxes cost about $130 each.
“It’s so expensive, it’s almost like gold,” Auckland corned beef supplier Eden Khoury says matter-of-factly.
“I’m not saying pisupo is like cigarettes. But it’s like, if you need it, you’re going to buy it.”
Such cultural customs, traditions and obligations come to the forefront when a life event such as a wedding, funeral or church opening takes place.
Samoans call such events a fa’alavelave – one that interrupts normal routine.
At those fa’alavelave, instead of a beef (cow) carcass being given – as is often customary back in the islands – boxes of corned beef are used among many Samoans living overseas to gift back to friends, family, church ministers and congregations. Families and churches dealing with such fa’alavelave often need bulk boxes of corned beef within days.
South Auckland Samoan community leader Pa’u Teleiai Edwin Puni explains the adoption of pusa pisupo (boxes of corned beef) in place of a cow or pig in these life events should make things easier and cheaper for Samoans living overseas.
Instead, things are getting “ridiculously expensive” as families go above and beyond to buy bulk boxes of corned beef for customary gifting purposes.
Near $200 a box, the cost can quickly reach thousands of dollars and some families are willing to go into debt to meet customary obligations, particularly for funerals and weddings.
Speaking on the specific part of the sua or gifting presentation, known as the fa’aoso, Pa’u said this was where things had become excessive and expensive.
“This is where some families will give five boxes and some want to give 50. I personally feel that it doesn’t have to be that excessive.
“We have gone too big and it’s really affecting families’ livelihoods. So as responsible leaders – and I’m also putting my hand up – keep it simple,” he said.
The practice being adopted and accepted more by Samoans living overseas, including in New Zealand, is to monetise customary gifts.
“This is now a practice that’s quite common – o le fa’atupe (monetising gifts). Instead of 50 pusa pisupo (boxes of corned beef), it’s $1000 in the envelope. The change from pusa pisupo, I fully support,” Pa’u says.
“If there’s any fa’aoso, an envelope in whatever amount is much better than trying to have all these pusa pisupo. It’s to lessen the burden.”
As the high chief of his family, Pa’u has led three funerals in the past few months and at each one, the family decided to lessen the burden by using monetary gifts instead of buying bulk corned beef.
“That’s why I’ve started with my own family. As leaders, if we want change, we start with our own families. It’s still mamalu(respectful), but not unnecessarily expensive.”
Eden Khoury’s wife is used to her husband getting phone calls at all hours of the night from people wanting boxes of corned beef.
He is the go-to man when it comes to buying bulk pisupo. Known as “the pisupo guy”, his is the name often shared among family and friends when a fa’alavelave happens.
“I get about 16-20 different funerals a week.”
As a bulk corned beef supplier, his prices are lower than at supermarkets. He works on about a 20% discount compared with supermarket prices and as of November, a single box through Khoury was $165.
“Sometimes people will pay me extra to deliver at 2 o’clock in the morning.”
Khoury, who is Māori-Lebanese, counts himself as an honorary Samoan-Pasifika, now that he has dealt with many Pacific Islands families during the eight years he has been running his business: Pasifika Supplies.
Although inflation has had the price of meat go up over the past few years, particularly after the Covid-19 pandemic, Khoury says it is the price of tin that has caused it to skyrocket in recent years.
Khoury was selling other products to begin with, as a side hustle, before people started asking him for corned beef.
“I showed up to one house and they said: ‘Oh, do you have 100 boxes’?”
Khoury now buys directly from the main corned beef-making companies, namely Watties, under Kraft Heinz. He also deals directly with Tegel because he sells bulk boxes of chicken, also widely used in Samoan/Pa, fa’alavelave.
There are other, more affordable brands of corned beef available – including Palm, which is made in West Auckland – but Pacific-brand corned beef is widely regarded as the premium choice for Samoans, Khoury says.
“When it comes to the gifting, it has to be Pacific because of the name and what it carries.
“I got quite close to the community and people. They would pour their hearts out to me and thank me – and treat me like family. I’m well known with the churches and all that.”
As an outsider looking in, Khoury has come to understand the financial and cultural pressures associated with fa’alavelave.
“It’s tough to see people taking money ... you know how some people go get finance and loans to pay for these things. A lot of pressure is on the kids.
“It’s an obligation ... that they need to fulfil the tradition and the culture. It’s like an obligation that they feel like they need to do.”
Khoury has, however, started to see a change in cultural practices.
“The younger generation, they’re actually breaking away from this gifting thing and instead giving some money back that they’ve received.
“The numbers have dropped. People used to buy 100 boxes; now they’re dropping to 50.
“They’re big families still. But they’re buying five boxes now because they just can’t keep up with the prices and the money and with inflation.”
Pa’u urged the Samoan community to remember the old ways.
“The key here is that the fa’asamoa does not have to be expensive.”
He encouraged those who might be hesitant about changing traditional ways by quoting the Samoan proverb: “E sui faiga, ae tumau fa’avae. Methods change, but the foundations remain.”
Vaimoana Mase is the Pasifika editor for the Herald’s Talanoa section, sharing stories from the Pacific community. She won junior reporter of the year at the then Qantas Media Awards in 2010, and won the best opinion writing award at the 2023 Voyager Media Awards.