Shop local key focus of new Northland food store, in the wake of EU restrictions

Say cheese! Origin Northland owner Jennifer Rodrigue (left) and shopkeeper Nora Bird love to provide locals with great products and have won praise for their knowledge of New Zealand-made cheese. Photo / Michael Cunningham

The EU Fair Trade Agreement means New Zealand-made cheeses will have to phase out names like feta, halloumi and gorgonzola, on top of tough economic conditions which have seen some Kiwi cheese makers shut their doors. But Jennifer and David Rodrigue from Belle Chevre Creamery have come up with their own solution: a new shop in Waipu, where products with the lowest possible food miles are sold. Denise Piper investigates.

Walking through Origin Northland in Waipu is a bit like looking at a Te Tai Tōkerau food producers’ success story.

Fresh bread made by Pinenut Bakery in Ruakākā, produce from Left Field, tropical fruit from Aotearoa Grown, venison from Wild Hinds, smoked salmon and mussels from Tasty Tucker, olive oil from Olives Up the Hill, plus goodies from The Chocolate Barn and Epic Coffee are just some of the local foods temptingly on offer, along with pantry staples from Northland and other parts of New Zealand.

Cheese is also a big part of the equation, with the store winning a Top New Zealand Cheese Store 2024 accolade for its tantalising selection of New Zealand cheeses, good knowledge and the ability to cut New Zealand cheeses fresh from the wheel.

Jennifer Rodrigue and husband David opened Origin Northland in August 2023, in part to sell their own artisan cheeses, with their award-winning Belle Chevre Creamery goat cheeses made just 5km away.

The store is about combating the European Union Free Trade Agreement, which will see more low-cost subsidised cheese imported into the country, while Kiwi cheeses must come up with their own names for the likes of feta and halloumi, she said.

“We had to make a decision to go really big and go into grocery stores or create the shop so that we can manage it all here,” Rodrigue said.

“The idea of competing with a lot of cheap overseas product reinforced the idea of staying boutique and artisanal. We thought we would contribute to making Waipu a foodie destination.”

The difficulties of being a successful boutique cheese maker have been highlighted by Kiwi closures, including Whangārei’s own Grinning Gecko, plus Drunken Nanny in Wairarapa, Cartwheel Creamery in Manawatū and Nieuwenhuis Farmstead cheeses in Hawke’s Bay, all in the past year.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle for us as an industry... We hope this [store] will be the answer; it’s really going back to the way the world used to be.”

Origin Northland sprouted from the popular Roving Rural Market, held around Ruakākā, Waipu and One Tree Point, Rodrigue said.

The markets were hugely popular until the bad weather events in 2023 discouraged customers and left producers with a lot of spoiled, soggy products.

Jennifer Rodrigue says selling her Belle Chevre Creamery goats cheeses at Origin Northland, just 5km from where they are made, is what the new store is all about. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Having decided a shop would better suit producers, Rodrigue looked for something in Waipu to lease but was unable to find anything to meet the strict food safety standards.

Instead, the couple ended up building their own block of six stores on Waipu’s main street, The Centre, providing space for not only their store but also a florist, beauty and health services, knitting kit business The Joy Make Club and the town’s only ATM.

Based on Origin Northland’s first summer season, the new store certainly is a successful way of fighting imports.

“The first season was manic, it was incredible and we could hardly keep up. We had to keep stocking local stuff at night and it was irritating that we couldn’t get a fresh supply of products from outside the region due to the public holidays,” Rodrigue said.

Belle Chevre Creamery praised for producing ‘gateway’ goat cheeses

The Rodrigues have managed to balance the demands of the new shop with the requirements of Belle Chevre Creamery, a small-scale production on their Waipu property where their goats are milked two at a time and the milk is freshly made into cheese each day.

The businesses has expanded to include three part-time staff but plenty of the manufacturing process is still done by hand, including bucketing the milk from the milking shed into the factory.

David and Jennifer Rodrigue say they love goats and Belle Chevre Cheese grew from their desire to be sustainable on their 16ha Waipu farm.

The lack of mechanical processes helps keep the cheese mild and creamy, rather than having a strong goat flavour, Rodrigue said.

The lovely flavours of the cheeses have seen them win award after award; most recently, three golds and a bronze medal at the 2024 New Zealand Champions of Cheese Awards, plus a gold and bronze medal at the 2024 Outstanding Food Producers Awards.

The New Zealand Champions of Cheese judges particularly praised Belle Chevre Creamery for producing a versatile, mild, “gateway” goat feta with its product Betta than Feta.

It is high praise for Belle Chevre Creamery, which initially started as a way for the couple to be self-sustainable on their 16ha property and has expanded to 14 different hard and soft cheese products.

A win at the 2018 Paparoa A&P show pushed them to enter the 2019 New Zealand Champions of Cheese Awards, taking out the homecrafted trophy for their Belle Chevre Flat White.

Rodrigue said the trophy drove them to start commercial production, and they got Ministry for Primary Industries registration that same year.

Now, both Belle Chevre Creamery and Bay of Islands-based Mahoe Farmhouse Cheese are shortlisted for trophies at the New Zealand Champions of Cheese Awards, to be announced at a gala dinner on May 2.

But no matter the results of the awards, Belle Chevre will have to change the names of its cheeses to meet the EU restrictions, with Betta than Feta and Zalloumi still being too close to feta and halloumi respectively.

“It will be a hurdle because it’s amazing the number of people who come up to me in a market and say, ‘my recipe calls for halloumi, what’s Zalloumi?’”

An industry group has been set up to decide names for New Zealand-made cheeses and, while a huge amount of marketing will be needed for customers to get used to the new names, Rodrigue sees one advantage: New Zealand cheeses will be able to make a name for themselves internationally for their creamy and mild flavours, which are distinct from overseas cheese.

Denise Piper is a news reporter for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.