Porou Miere honey extraction facility opens at Te Araroa

Ngati Porou Mānuka is a highly prized, UMF-certified mono-floral honey with amazing antibacterial action and a wide variety of health benefits. Mānuka honey is raw and rich with an intense, distinctive and pleasant flavour. Pictures by Strike Photography

A new state-of-the-art honey extraction facility opened at Te Araroa early in February bringing together Ngati Porou people, landowners and resident apiculture businesses across the mānuka honey value chain.

The partnership between Nati Growth, Trust Tairāwhiti, and Whetumatarau B45B hopes to provide greater regional returns, sustainable jobs, and training.

An official opening took place on February 9th — with representatives from Nati Growth, Trust Tairāwhiti, Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou, MBIE, Ngati Porou Miere Collective and the community in attendance. This marked the significance of the milestone, allowed for the sharing of stories, recognition of the efforts to see the project to completion, acknowledgement of common objectives and the formalisation of working relationships.

The impressive 1000 sq metre facility was developed over two years, with most of the building taking place in the last year when the foundations were laid and the framing constructed. The project cost more than $5 million, with $2 million loaned from the Provincial Growth Fund and 20 percent of capital invested by Trust Tairāwhiti.

The extraction plant, which houses an extraction line and large storage area, came together quickly in the last four months with the plumbing and electricity going in to the facility.

“By bringing state-of-the-art equipment and technology into the heart of the region, we are providing an opportunity for our people and a product we are proud to share with the world,” says Josiah Cook, Nāti Growth Group chief commercial officer.

“We have more than 75 years of beekeeping experience across the team. This knowledge provides a vital link in our ability to train and develop a local workforce while ensuring we continue to produce high-quality, premium mānuka honey.”

The team at Nati Growth have been working hard on this transformational project for several years, building strong relationships across the industry and government partners.

Nati Growth is the economic and wealth generation arm of Te Runanganui o Ngati Porou.

The primary focus of te runanganui is to promote and sustain positive outcomes for Ngati Porou — particularly focused on health, housing and social services. These core functions are made possible through the commercial focus of its subsidiaries which include Ngati Porou Manuka.

With more than 80,000 members, Ngati Porou is one of the largest iwi in New Zealand. Based on the East Coast of the North Island, the team is committed to creating world-class mānuka honey.

Their beehives are spread along the unique State Highway 35, providing an ideal setting for the bees — unspoiled by urbanisation, with native forests overlapping the highway and its coastal towns.

They started extracting honey at the plant in January which was sourced from hives on Ngati Porou land and other Māori land blocks.

The facility will also be used by other landowners who will pay a contract fee to have their honey extracted there.

Prior to the opening of the facility, boxes from hives across the East Coast were transported to Gisborne for extraction.

The rationale is to be able to extract the honey closer to the source, which is more cost-effective. It has also created five new jobs at the plant as well as the 12 people who look after the hives and a team leader based in Gisborne.

At the moment honey is extracted and put into big drums which are sold wholesale.

The goal is to build up the number of hives and find the trees that provide the best manuka and produce the highest grade UMF honey. Large stands of wild mānuka grow naturally across the land.

With high demand for mānuka honey internationally, another goal is to grow relationships offshore and find long-term supply chains.