Kono: the treasured food basket

Aspiring to be the world’s best indigenous food and beverage producer, Kono and its values-driven approach to doing business is something to be admired.

Located at Te Tauihu o te Ika a Māui, the top of the South Island, for Māori company Kono love of the land and respect for the sea are guiding lights for the way it operates. Integrating values from Te Ao Māori with its approach to business by combining traditional values with sustainable practices, its built an impressive portfolio covering seafood to beverages, which are exported to more than 40 countries worldwide.

Kono derives its name from the treasured food basket woven from the leaves of harakeke, flax. The kono has traditionally been a vessel for carrying, storing, sharing and giving food to whānau and esteemed manuhiri, guests, in a tradition of honour and hospitality.

Kono sits under the umbrella of parent company Wakatū, which is owned by approximately 4,000 descendants of the customary Māori land owners.

The owners of Wakatū come from the four iwi of Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Tama and Te Ātiawa, arriving in Te Tauihu in the early 1800s in a series of epic migrations.

Wakatū is a business of the land and sea. Its key portfolio spans whenua, and the management of orchards vineyards, land and marine farms where it grows and cultivates apples, pears, kiwifruit, hops and mussels.

Wakatū holds the belief that everything is interconnected, and each generation owes a duty to protect the whenua (land), awa (rivers), and moana (sea). Wakatū has developed Te Pae Tawhiti, a 500-year intergenerational plan which guides decisions and behaviours so that the taonga entrusted to the whānau of Wakatū is nutured and sustained for the generations to come. “Whatungarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua” “As people disappear from sight, the land remains.”

Kono is its food and beverages arm, connecting the products grown across its farms, land and sea, to the world.

For Kono, the guiding light of Te Pae Tawhiti ensures they create, source and provide products that are ethically and sustainably created. Along with a drive to be the best indigenous food and beverage producer, Kono aims to share its brands with a community of people that appreciate their values-led approach.

And it’s well on its way as that is exactly what today’s consumers are looking for, brands with heart and care. What makes Kono special is that it is growing a business that lives and breathes its values, infusing them through its operations. That of manaakitanga, kindness and elevating others, kaitiakitanga, honour and duty to maintain balance between people and whenua, rangatiratanga, excellence, whanaungatanga, relationships and connection, hihiritanga, innovation and development, and pono, walking the talk.

Under the leadership of inspirational CEO Rachel Tauleilei, Ngāti Raukawa ki te Tonga, Ngāti Rārua, Kono is committed to these guiding principles while retaining a connection to tūrangawaewae, the identity and sense of belonging that makes Kono unique.

“Whatungarongaro te tangata toitū te whenua” – “as people disappear from sight, the land remains).”