Maori farming brand in making

FUTURE PROSPECTS: Ngahiwi Tomoana wants Maori farmers to have better control of the supply chain.

Ngati Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated (NKKI) is aiming to create a Maori brand to help boost the export yield of Kahungunu farmers from northern Wairoa to South Wairarapa.

Chairman Ngahiwi Tomoana said a Kahungunu farming conference would be held at Takitimu Marae in Wairoa on October 2 and would be hosted by the Hastings-based NKKI and Wairoa taiwhenua; one of six in the NKKI rohe that also includes Ngati Kahungunu ki Wairarapa.

"As part of the wider Maori Economic Development Strategy, we are increasing the export capacity of Maori farmers into the market, in other words from the nuku to the puku," Mr Tomoana said.

The development strategy, He kai kei aku ringa, provided an outline for a productive, innovative and export-oriented Maori economy that would support better-paying jobs and higher living standards.

Mr Tomoana said the purpose of the conference would be to "bring together Maori farmers, landowners, and people who utilise primary resources and anyone else who might be interested in connecting, exploring, sharing ideas" and contributing to the Ngati Kahungunu export strategy.

He said NKKI was proposing that "Ngati Kahungunu farmers and all Maori farmers would be better off by supplying directly to the market and retaining all the earnings in the supply chain rather than waving goodbye to the animals and the profits at the farm gate.

"This would mean creating a Maori brand in the marketplace, telling our unique story and history in the Asia-Pacific region and reforging traditional links into Asia.

"It would also involve training our own to take greater management of our farms.

"All aspects will be considered from agri-science to finance, logistics, economics and marketing.

"The practice of leasing out farms, and then being dictated to by meat processors, and then dealt to by the exporters should be a thing of the past once we have a unified and fully integrated supply chain to the end user."

In March, NKKI bought Tautane, one of the biggest sheep and cattle stations in North Island.

Mr Tomoana said it would form part of any iwi-wide export strategy and would help create "a long footprint in the farming sector and meat industry" in New Zealand.

Tautane is a 3680ha station near Herbertville in the Tararua district that in 2011 had a QV capital value of $4.2million and land value of $3.9million.

The then-outgoing Tautane station manager, John Linton, had been sheep and beef farming at the property for eight years after shifting from Martinborough with his family.

Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre in Wairarapa is today leasing the land at Tautane, which had been described as a unique training and work facility for students, farm managers and agri-scientists.