40 | REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Matai Pacific Iwi Collective Congratulations to the team at Matai Pacific Iwi Collective 0800 TOP OGR | eastpack.co.nz | prospa.nz Another top year for Collective Charles Russell: “We’re enormously proud to win the Atuwhenua Awards nomination because it reflects Matai Pacific’s determination to be a leader in Maori kiwifruit orcharding T T from page 38 Proud to supply Independent Orchard Management and Machinery Contracting Services for all Matai Pacific Iwi Collective orchards ehc.co.nz Proud to work with Matai Pacific Iwi Collective Stem Rural Accountants We’re not your typical accounting practice - just straightforward advice, quick responses, and a team that’s refreshingly easy to engage with. We want to take away your pain when dealing with your books – that’s what makes working with us a breeze. Let’s grow together! 123 Jellicoe Street, Te Puke 3119 PH 07 573 5569 www.stemrural.co.nz We’re specialist Rural Accountants • Xero and Figured experts • PSA — pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae — is a highly virulent bacterial canker, first recorded in Japan in the 1980s, that savaged the New Zealand kiwifruit industry when it broke out here in 2010. “When a big kiwifruit enterprise near Te Puke in the Bay of Plenty went on the market at an affordable price in 2015, we formed Matai Pacific to acquire it and further develop it,” Charles says. “The total area was 158ha in three blocks spread over nine titles with just 60ha planted, the balance of the land being in steep gullies where we run livestock. “From the start our driving consideration was to harness our iwi collective’s combined strength and apply it to sustainable management of our resources to ensure lasting and sustainable economic growth, environmental stewardship and cultural integrity.” The Te Matai Road Orchard is the biggest of Matai Pacific’s three, producing about half each of Hayward and SunGold (G3) varieties on the former pastoral block that still has the old woolshed and stockyards, plus a main house and cottage. The other two blocks are on the Old Coach Road, the first comprising 38ha of mostly flat land, of which 28ha is planted in SunGold, while the second is a former dairy farm of an undulating 27.7ha planted mostly in the Haywards variety supplemented by new SunGold plantings. The larger of the two Old Coach Road orchards boasts a large well and reservoir for irrigation and frost management. Matai Pacific’s management philosophy is based around four key principles: toitutanga (sustainability), tonuitanga (prosperity), rangatiratanga (leadership) and kia pono, kia tika (integrity and doing what is right). The company’s board comprises three shareholder and two independent directors, and it employs a third-party contractor to manage the orchards which have contracts with three post-harvest service providers, EastPack, MPAC and Seeka. CEO Charles has an extensive background in executive leadership, logistics and kiwifruit post-harvest operations, and in 2022, when Matai Pacific was just five years old, he was the recipient of the Zespri Kellogg Rural Leadership Award, reflecting the company’s record of growth, cultural sensitivity and innovation.
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