Miro berry business breaking ground
A Ma¯ori-owned horticulture business promising 5000 jobs has broken ground in Morrinsville.
Aspiring berry exporter Miro - owned by 20 Ma¯ori trusts, iwi and collectives - also signed a 50-50 joint venture with Crown-owned Plant and Food Research on Thursday.
The vision for the Ma¯oriowned, Ma¯ori-run company was outlined in speeches at Rukumoana Marae near Morrinsville, before a to¯tara was planted to mark the beginning of Nga¯ti Haua¯’s initial two hectare blueberry plantation.
The venture’s first job: create the perfect crunchy, tasty and consistent blueberry for the Asian and Australian markets.
Miro director Steve Saunders - also co-founder of the internationally marketed Rockit apple - is confident the company can scale up to 5000 jobs and over two million berry plants in nine year’s time.
Looking to emulate kiwifruit grower Zespri, Saunders said existing blueberry varieties would be used to grow international exports before introducing their own geneticallycrafted product.
Ma¯ori from Northland to the top of the South Island, including Waikato’s Nga¯ti Haua¯, have already invested and will begin planting, with an expectation of a 20 per cent average cash return over nine years.
Miro projects it will require 100 skilled orchard managers, plant 500 hectare of berries and bring $500 million to the national economy in that time.
The plants will be grown in substrate-filled 30 litre pots, auto- matically drip-fed under tunnel houses.
‘‘We’re talking about sophisticated horticulture development, selling sophisticated berries to Australia and Asia.
‘‘People want to be more connected in where there food comes from. What we undervalue in New Zealand is our culture, and Ma¯ori have a great story to tell.’’
Miro chair Rukumoana Schaafhausen spoke of returning to Nga¯ti Haua¯’s past, the ‘‘golden years’’ when a whare on every hill would be surrounded by plantings of wheat, maize and berries.
‘‘We came together because we wanted jobs for our people, higher returns on our land, and to own IP and a global business that would secure a future for our mokopuna.’’
Plant and Food Research chief executive David Hughes said it would take thousand of crossbreed attempts over the next 10 years to create a high-end blueberry. The Crown research institute would invest ‘‘multimillions’’ during this time, and earn royalties from the end product. Plant and Food Research currently earns nearly $40 million a year through similar arrangements.
‘‘It’s high-tech and it’s big stakes, and there’s not many people around the world that are doing it,’’ Hughes said.
Also launched was a employment programme with Ministry of Social Development, which aims to support 40 people into orchard employment in the next 12 months.