Autumn 2025 Update: Māori Horticulture Positioned to Lead
Tāngata Huawhenua’s Autumn 2025 pānui brings together insights from a suite of new sector reports and highlights the momentum Māori are building in horticulture — despite ongoing challenges and complexity across the industry.
Key Sector Reports Featured:
- Māori in Horticulture 2025 (BERL)
- Scrimgeour Report – Pathways to a Better Future for the NZ Kiwifruit Industry
- Future Use of Land and How to Fund It (Sapere for MfE)
- KPMG Agri Agenda 2025
Kiwifruit: A Sector at a Crossroads
Professor Frank Scrimgeour’s report outlines both the success and looming risks in kiwifruit, especially for Māori growers. Key concerns include:
- Falling profitability for green fruit
- Diminishing Māori shareholding in Zespri
- Post-harvest inefficiencies and governance tensions
The report calls for four bold reforms:
- Grower-led ownership tools, like a shareholder fund
- Transparency in offshore growing
- Reform of Plant Variety Rights (PVRs)
- A redesigned supply chain
This is a chance for Māori to step into leadership — not wait for change.
Māori in Horticulture: Growth Accelerating
The BERL report shows Māori are rapidly shifting land use into high-value horticulture:
- Māori now own 7% of NZ horticultural land (up 50% since 2017)
- 12.2% of kiwifruit land is Māori-owned
- $305 million in gross output from Māori horticulture (2024)
- Yet only 1.1% of all Māori land is in horticulture — signalling massive growth potential
Barriers remain, especially in workforce development (71% of Māori workers are in low-skilled roles) and access to capital. But the growth is real, especially in kiwifruit, onions, and emerging avocado ventures.
Future Use of Land Report: Time to Transform
The Future Use of Land and How to Fund It report reinforces what many Māori landowners already know:
- High-emission pastoral farming is unsustainable
- Māori are uniquely positioned to lead land-use diversification
- But traditional funding systems are holding progress back
The call: create dedicated transition funds, shared-risk capital models, and localised capability support for Māori collectives.
KPMG Agri Agenda: Māori Values at the Centre
The 2025 KPMG Agri Agenda urges a “reset” of the food and fibre sector. It calls for:
- Repositioning NZ with a clear, values-led food identity
- Investment in Māori governance and workforce capability
- Recognition of kaitiakitanga in international trade narratives
- Greater Māori representation in decision-making and innovation systems
Sector Snapshot & Global Outlook
From feijoas to kiwiberries, citrus to avocados, Māori growers are part of a wider push for innovation and premium global positioning.
Highlights include:
- $8B export goal for 2025
- Te Awanui’s continued presence in Malaysia
- Growing momentum in protected cropping and covered vegetable sectors
📥 Download the Full Autumn 2025 Pānui (PDF)
Ngā manaakitanga,
Rātahi Cross
Chairman, Tāngata Huawhenua Māori Horticulture Council
