| 13 Rotorua Business Awards: Te Arawa Fisheries On the fast track to sustainable growth T Kim Newth Te Arawa Fisheries is on the fast track to growth. BUSINESS Proudly supporting Te Arawa Fisheries A transformational business strategy has put Te Arawa Fisheries on the fast track to growth over the past 18 months, with active steps being taken to put the business in a strong market position. Te Arawa Fisheries has been selected as an excellence finalist in Innovation and Technology at the 2021 Tompkins Wake Rotorua Business Awards with winners to be announced at a gala awards evening on 13 November. However, as CEO Chris Karamea Insley explains, the possibility of picking up a business award has not been the driver for change. With significant challenges facing fisheries worldwide from a global pandemic to climate change, he says maintaining a ‘business as usual’ approach was no longer a viable choice for the company, which is pledged to managing fisheries assets responsibly and returning benefits to Te Arawa iwi and whānau. “What we have done in the past is not going to sustain us into the future. Given the tough world we’re in, you’ve got to innovate or die. For us, that has meant moving from passively holding fishing quota into active business development in the high value-add space. Over the past year and a half we’ve gone from absolutely no innovation to today, having innovation in everything we do.” Te Arawa Fisheries’ 2020 revenue of $4.5m was up more than 20% on 2019. Their refreshed business strategy rests on four key pillars or pou, encompassing people, environment, culture and value, all of which are being honoured. Through their Trust (Te Kotahitanga o te Arawa), Te Arawa Fisheries delivers benefits to Te Arawa descendants through programmes such as Te Arawa 500 Scholarships, Iwi Partnerships and provision of kaimoana to tangihanga. The thriving Te Arawa Mahi team is also creating jobs for Te Arawa people. As Chris observes, they have 50,000+ shareholders who demand more than economic returns. If that was all they had to do, it would be easy, he says. “No, our people demand a social dividend – to grow our people - and that we operate in a totally sustainable manner looking after the environment, the moana, our lands. And, they expect us to foster, promote and grow our culture.” Achieving these multiple bottom-lines is far more complex and challenging than a conventional business model, he says. Innovation is certainly playing a pivotal role in that complex strategy. This year Te Arawa Fisheries has launched a new brand called ‘He’ for its new premium range of seafood products, released into the domestic market in October. A launch into Australia is planned over the next few months, followed by the US and Canada. “We’re also doing a $200 million capital raise right now for five new large scale regional aquaculture [mussel farm] developments. All the modelling work and studies we’ve done show that we can bring products to market from these developments over the next two to five years and release $1.5b in new GDP economic growth and 2000 new jobs. “As well, we have large scale open ocean king fish farming and land based kind fish farming as an option, and we have a variety of seaweed suitable for aquaculture development and large scale scallop farming. In fact, we’re talking directly to Sealord’s partner, Japan-based Nissui, about a scallop farming option that they’re hugely interested in.” Linking into Te Arawa Fisheries aspirational strategy, Ngā Iwi i Te Rohe o Te Waiariki (Bay of Plenty iwi) has recently formed a science and technology-backed consortium with two universities (Waikato and Otago), Plant & Food Research, Cawthron Institute and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). All have signed a memorandum of understanding to facilitate collaboration, data sharing and funding to investigate potential marine, science and technology business opportunities. Currently being explored as part of the ongoing innovation drive is a European Union $160b research fund that has recently opened up to applications from around the world. Chris says it has multi-million dollar potential for iwi aquaculture project development.
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