MEET THE PRODUCERS
Awhi farms aren’t just cultivating great produce; they’re reuniting land and people
Awhi farms: growing great produce and re-connecting land and people.
Awhi is an ancestral Māori farming company based at the foot of Mount Ruapehu, with a commitment to nurturing the earth, crafting the finest natural products, and rejuvenating and reconnecting land and people. So when dish wades gumboots-first into swampy question territory – along the lines of “erm, don’t you find it a challenge to balance such admirable goals and values with running a profitable business?”, the clarity of the response is humbling.
“We don’t see it as a challenge. It’s just the way we do things.”
These are the words of Whetu Moataane, tikanga and branding manager at Ātihauwhanganui Incorporation (yes, we’ll explain the Awhi/ātihau thing in a moment).
Whetu’s job title tells you a lot about Awhi’s commitment to upholding Māori cultural values. He’s responsible for looking after the cultural components and practices across the company, which on family farms across 42,000 hectares of Whanganui countryside produces wool, lamb, honey and beef – including a reportedly outstanding Ruapehu Angus, launched in February.
LET IT BEE
Awhi produces milk and grass-fed beef, juicy lamb (exported to California), and wild honey. It produces strongwool fibre from the Romney and Perendale flocks that roam the hill country (lucky ewes, with that view of the mountain), and every product is created using minimal intervention. The cows that give the
milk at the Ohakune dairy have a single year-round home. “We want to keep truck rides to a minimum, so we just don’t shift them at all.” The honey is harvested once only so the bee-keepers are not touching the hives too much, making sure the bees are in the right environment. Or, as Whetu beautifully puts it, so that a bee “can just be a bee”.
“People tell us it’s really good honey. Because of the practice we follow. We want our animals to be the best animal they can be on our farm. We provide that environment for them. We are very environmental. We make sure our waterways are protected, that our practices are environmentally sustainable.”
“Our priorities are to ensure that our whenua, our land, is always looked after”
And that, in fact, is the central point about all of this. The company isn’t churning out great produce despite having to adhere to strict cultural norms. It is doing so precisely because of them.
ECO FROM THE PAST
While the rest of us have arrived unfashionably late at the ‘Let’s Be Nicer to the Planet’ party (and some are still stuck in traffic), caring for Papatūānuku, the earth, has always been integral to the Māori world view. “Our priorities are to ensure that our whenua, our land, is always looked after. We believe if you look after the land you are going to reap benefits. Our practices on the farm align to the protection and working of the land,” explains Whetu.
“What makes us unique is that it’s Māori land, it’s Māori farms, a Māori incorporation. So it’s common sense for us that Māori practices are followed. That is part of my role, to support staff in understanding what that means. We’re not saying you don’t follow a particular farm practice, but it’s how you do it from a Māori perspective.
“When we talk about kotahitanga, unity, it’s how we encourage ourselves to work in unity for the betterment of our shareholders, our farms and animals… when we talk about
whanaungatanga, building relationships, it’s how do we build relationships between ourselves and externally?”
CARING ABOUT THE STORY
Doing things ‘from a Māori perspective’ can be anything from blessing newly built staff accommodation on the farm to starting meetings with a karakia, with Whetu explaining to staff what the karakia means and why it’s relevant.
As for Awhi/ātihau… well, Awhi is the brand that represents the company’s commercial side, the products. But they’re still known as the Ātihau Whanganui Incorporation (Awhi being its acronym) because “it’s familiar with our shareholders”. The word ‘awhi’ means to care and to embrace. “That is what we call the Awhi way, the Awhi story. It’s what we’ve committed to with our products.”
The story isn’t just important for the stakeholders, for their sense of history and belonging. It’s important in a commercial sense too. It’s partly why the Ruapehu Angus, sold directly to restaurants through distributor Foodchain, is proving a big hit with chefs.
“A lot of restaurants, particularly in Auckland, are wanting to engage and sell our product, because we have a story to share.
The executive chefs are really liking the story.”
And, of course, it’s also a great product.
“We provide sirloin, rump, scotch. The chefs love working with it. It doesn’t need much work, the marble score is great, the taste is really fresh and unique. We put that down to the fact we let them be an animal on the farm. We’ve got good pasture, a great environment. It’s proving to be a great success for us.”
The Awhi ‘embrace’ extends not just to the 60 staff and cadets across the nine farms and the single apiary, but to all 9000-plus shareholders who are family members of the Whanganui iwi. The whānau are encouraged to maintain an active connection with Awhi and the land through an open-invitation annual general meeting, annual farm tour, the Awhi magazine, and the occasional hunting weekend. “They all have whakapapa links to the land blocks, which start in the Mt Ruapehu area right down to the Whanganui River.”
BACK TO THE PEOPLE
Engagement with shareholders, who get an annual dividend at the end of the year, is a top priority. “We can get up to 700-plus people attending our AGM here in Whanganui. It’s a chance for them to see what the business is doing. We are amping that up, using technology and social media.”
Awhi’s charitable arm, The Te Āti Hau
Trust, is in charge of distribution of grants for kaumātua, education, sport, health and wellbeing, and scholarships, and a new alumni programme is aiming to create a ‘skills pot’. “We support local community events and projects, we give financial assistance for renovations for marae, etc.”
After all, this land is the people’s land. Awhi has a duty to them, to the whānau, to honour their tīpuna, and to nurture their future. That’s quite a hefty responsibility for any business. But in the case of this organisation, it’s not about options or challenges, or clever marketing. As Whetu says, it’s simply the way they do things.
“A lot of restaurants are wanting to engage and sell our product... the executive chefs are really liking our story”