Otakiri Springs chief executive Jim Robertson. Photo / NZME
Otakiri Springs chief executive Jim Robertson. Photo / NZME
Otakiri Reserve Sparkling water from the eastern Bay of Plenty has received a gold medal at the prestigious Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting.
The award is a boost for the company, which is awaiting a Supreme Court decision on whether it can expand its operation at Ōtākiri Spring.
Managing director Jim Robertson said he was “ecstatic” about the company’s win in the “Olympics of water tasting”, held in the United States spa town of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia.
Judges tasted water from 15 countries, awarding medals for best municipal, best non-carbonated, best sparkling and best purified drinking water.
It is the Otakiri Springs company’s second medal from the event, having taken silver for the same product in 2017.
“It certainly puts the water from this aquifer in the top 2 per cent of waters around the world,” Robertson said.
The award would help boost exports, he said.
Robertson said there was a lot involved with creating the best sparkling water, besides starting with a pristine natural aquifer water source, including filtration, ozonation, temperature during bottling, level of carbon dioxide levels of pressure.
“There’s a lot of trialling to get the product to the level you desire.
“Water is the most difficult beverage to bottle because you can’t use any preservatives. Everything has to be exceptionally clean and pure, even the filtration of the water.”
Robertson said the biggest challenge in recent years had been getting the boxes of glass bottles to the competition unbroken.
“The last two lots we’ve sent have been broken and had to be rejected. This year we sent them on a pallet and the whole lot arrived without any issues.”
The win comes as the company has been in hiatus for the past six years.
In 2016, Creswell New Zealand, a subsidiary of Chinese water bottling giant Nongfu, entered into a conditional sales and purchase agreement to buy Otakiri Springs.
Iwi were opposed to increasing the plant’s annual take from the Ōtākiri Aquifer to 1.1 million cubic metres based on the damage the water bottling activity would have on the mauri (life force) of the water.
Community group Sustainable Ōtākiri was concerned about insufficient consultation with the community, and concerns around the number of vehicles that would be using the small rural road.
Ngāti Awa iwi members protest against the expansion of the Ōtākiri bottling plant outside Rotorua District Court in July 2020. Photo / Andrew Warner
This led to a lengthy legal case that is awaiting a judgment from the Supreme Court.
Creswell New Zealand pulled out of the deal last year, which Robertson said was more to do with Covid-19 issues in China and the world economy than the legal action.
Robertson said he wasn’t sure what would happen if the consent was granted by the courts.
“Our company is focused on rebuilding our business. If it’s a positive outcome, it is difficult to know whether the plant in its current format that was consented will be built, or a smaller version. We just don’t know.”
He said the collapse of the business deal was a sad loss for the Whakatāne district, as it would have created employment.
The Creswell deal would have led to the product becoming available in New Zealand, too.
“I have had other offers to buy the company but they weren’t prepared to sell on the New Zealand market as Creswell was. Every New Zealander should be able to have access to this water.”
“We’ve had a lot of knockers. Everyone has this perception that [the aquifer] is like a big swimming pool, and we’re draining it. It’s not like that.
“This is one of the most active aquifers in New Zealand, and what we don’t use, drains out to sea.
“Bay of Plenty Regional Council are only allowed to consent 35 per cent of that for extraction. That 35 comes to nearly 30 million litres a day and the rest ends up in the ocean,” he said.
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
