Mātai Pacific Iwi Collective has won the 2026 Ahuwhenua Trophy for Excellence in Māori Horticulture, the most prestigious award in Māori horticulture and one PGG Wrightson is proud to sponsor.

The win was announced at the Ahuwhenua Awards dinner in Whangārei, in front of more than 700 people from across the primary sector, government, and Māori communities. Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka named the winner. The Te Puke collective came out ahead of fellow finalists Otama Marere Trust and Ngāti Hine Forestry Trust.

Chief executive Charles Russell put the win down to his team.

"We're absolutely elated, really proud of our team, and it's an honour and a privilege to stand alongside Otama Marere and Ngāti Hine Forestry Trust on this occasion," he said.

PGG Wrightson is a proud sponsor of the Ahuwhenua Trophy, and the award goes back a long way. It was set up in 1933 by Sir Āpirana Ngata and Governor-General Lord Bledisloe to push Māori farmers and growers to do their best work. Nearly a century on, that is still the point of it. The growers it celebrates are the same people PGG Wrightson works with every day.

Mātai Pacific Iwi Collective is Zespri's largest Māori shareholder, and since 2018 it has grown its combined assets to more than $130 million. Ahuwhenua Trophy Management Committee chair Nukuhia Hadfield said the finalists were hard to separate.

"You could not have separated the standard of operations by passion or purpose, but Mātai Pacific Iwi Collective rose to the top," she said.

Māori horticulture is having a good run. Growers now produce around 10 per cent of New Zealand's kiwifruit exports and are opening niche markets offshore, including in Hawaii.

Young Māori Grower Award

Te Rina Joe, an orchard supervisor in Hawke's Bay, was named the 2026 Ahuwhenua Young Māori Grower. The award goes to a grower under 30 who is making their mark, and in just over a decade it has built up a strong group of young Māori now working across the sector.

Congratulations to Mātai Pacific Iwi Collective, to Te Rina Joe, and to every grower who entered.

Photo credit: Alphapix Photography