Kiwi Leaders

About Kiwi Leaders

Kiwi Leaders was seeded from Te Awanui Huka Pak in October 2016 for the purpose of creating pathways for our whānau into meaningful employment within the kiwifruit industry. Since it’s conception, there has been overwhelming demand in the Bay of Plenty for integrated development plans across multiple sectors.

Today our vision is to have a skilled and talented Māori workforce for the primary industries and for Aotearoa.

Our mission is to bridge the gap between rangatahi (students and young professionals) and the business community by providing supported pathways from secondary school into high value education and employment within primary sectors.

The Ministry of Primary Industries have recognised our export market is changing because:

• consumer demands are evolving and changing,
• there is a need to maintain and add value,
• there will be an increase in automation and the use of robotics
• production units will become more specialised, sophisticated and larger, there is a growing demand for support services and a need for transferability of skills across the primary industries.

​The Future capability needs for the primary industries in New Zealand report identified that currently, the industry does not have the workforce capability to meet export targets. Statistics NZ have advised that by 2050, Māori and Pacifica will make up over 50% of the national population. Therefore, how they participate to the workforce is critical to economic growth. Currently Māori represent 22% of youth unemployment and only 35% of Māori leaving school have qualifications.

Kiwi Leaders is the Bay of Plenty’s strategy aimed to create a skilled workforce for the primary industries with a focus on achieving better representation and leadership of Māori, at higher levels of employment and education for all opportunities across the primary sector. The strategy was created in response to a call from our Te Awanui Huka Pak shareholders who expressed their desire to grow our whanau.

There’s a job for you!

Let us open your eyes and help you discover the variety of exciting jobs that exist within the kiwifruit industry!

Be part of this dynamic industry, leading the way in healthy sustainable food production. An industry where you get to develop technology, grow food, design new products and sell them to the world!