Māori Issues
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Maori owned business Miro on mission to grow berries, jobs and economic prosperity

March 19, 2018

A collective of Maori entities are looking to assert control of their land and to generate employment.

A collective of Maori entities are looking to assert control of their land and to generate employment through the berry fruit industry. 

Miro Limited Partnership (Miro) is a collective that includes whanau land trusts, iwi and hapi groups. Their vision is to commercialise high value berry varieties in partnership with Maori landowners. 

Miro have identified that the global health food sector is growing year by year and they are ready to take a piece of the market pie. 

Its director, Steve Saunders, says more berries continue to be grown globally due to consumer demand. 

"Berries are being grown globally at a phenomenal rate of 20% year-on-year and it's really a demand of consumers to consume healthier snacking products and food." 

Mr Saunders says one of Miro's goals is to farm 500ha of berries which in turn will create over an estimated 5000 jobs and bring income to the local economy. Miro are looking to cater to both global and local markets. 

"The target market is international, particularly Australia and Asian countries. But there's also really fantastic opportunity domestically as well to sell high quality berries to local consumers." 

Miro chair Rukumoana Schaafhausen says the business is an opportunity for Maori to get better value for money with their whenua, and to be able to implement tikanga around good environmental practice. 

"For too long our whanau, our Maori land blocks have leased their lands to third parties for a pittance. So we want to regain control. We want to restore our tikanga and our environmental practices on our whenua." 

Miro are based in Te Puna, near Tauranga, in the western Bay of Plenty.

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