Iwi’s seafood company losses ‘unacceptable’

Iwi-owned company Takitimu Seafoods has made a significant loss for the third year running, prompting the iwi chair to call for an independent review of the company’s performance. Takitimu Seafoods has reported a loss of $5.5 million in the 2021/2022 year. It follows losses of $6.9m in the 2020/2021 year, and $3.5m in 2019/2020. Takitimu Seafoods was incorporated in 2019 following the purchase of troubled company Hawke’s Bay Seafoods, which was the subject of a lengthy court action that led to a massive fine of $1.08m for largescale illegal fishing. Takitimu’s sole shareholder is Kahungunu Asset Holding Company Ltd., which manages assets on behalf of Nga¯ti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated (NKII), which has the mandate to represent the people of Nga¯ti Kahungunu and is the governing body for all aspects of the iwi’s development. There are 38,000 registered iwi members. The poor financial performances led to a restructure of Takitimu Seafoods in May that saw 35 jobs lost. This had been put down largely to Covid-19, which had led to the sudden cessation of all export sales of crayfish and seafood to China. NKII’s recently released annual report stated the downsized company had entered into a partnership with Moana NZ to provide fish through the Kahungunu quota allocation.