Tairawhiti (East Cape) Manuka Oil has been a decade in the making.
It is only now when we look back at where weve been we realize how naive we were when we sat around the old tressle table in the shed at Te Araroa and decided to form a Company to take our newly discovered, highly active Manuka Oil to the World.

The Company was formed in 1991 after two years of preliminary investigations by two separate groups, one a local Maori charitable trust, led by Syd Clarke, Pierre Henare and Hal Hovell driven by the desire to generate much needed employment for its people and the other Mark Kerr, an Industrial engineer motivated by the challenge, and seeking to be invloved with an enterprise of real value.

Fortunately there were others who had a better idea of what we were up against, such as Dr Noel Porter of the then DSIR now, Crop and Food Research who encouraged the two groups to combine their resources and expertise and guided the Company once formed in the right direction and Dr Alan Cooke of the Cawthron Institute who assured us that this was a discovery and a product of importance.

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THE DISCOVERY:

The Manuka tree grows widely throughout New Zealand and has attracted scienctific and commerical interest at various times in the past. Some of this interest and research has been in an effort to obliterate the Manuka from land areas utilized for livestock farming. The Manuka tree is the first tree to re-generate following the clearing of land and so to the farmer it was a weed. A hillside of lush green manuka signified hard work, sweat and a cost to the farmer and so many sought a way to get rid of it. Thus the Manuka Blight was developed, a disease of the tree which could be readily transferred from plant to plant and area to area. This was very effective in many areas - interestingly it had little effect on the East Cape Manuka.

Scientists had also considered how the Manuka could be utilized with the timber being a beautiful extremely dense hardwood and the leaves containing, like many of the Myrtacace family, a steam volatile Oil. The oils had attracted some interest but little had been found of real commerical importance until some samples tested by Dr Cooke of the Cawthron Institute showed some remarkable results.

Oil produced from the Manuka tree from a small area of the East Cape showed antimicrobial activity far greater than had been seen with other Manuka oil samples and greather than many other natural oils on the market.

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THE DEVELOPMENT:

The founding shareholders were not what you’d call a “financially weathly bunch of people” and so they sought assistance from various organisations and individuals and used some “kiwi” ingenuity and a lot of community support to patch the first Manuka oil processing facility together and in operation in Te Araroa at the beginning of 1992. It may not have been pretty - but it worked.

Te Araroa which translates to “the long pathway” describes well the next few years. We soon found that the international market although showing strong interest in our oil, demanded vast quantities of technical information and assurances of quality, safety and effectiveness - all things we took for granted.

With the financial support of parents, brothers, sisters and friends, associates and scientists we managed to survive, while together with our research partners we built up the knowledge base and substantiated this Oil.
Due to these efforts Tairawhiti (East Cape) Manuka Oil is now gaining international recognition and acceptance.

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THE SUCCESS:

The founding shareholders and supporting friends and family are still not what you’d call a “financially weathly bunch of people” but they are all still with us and continue to strongly support the efforts of the Company.

All the original members are still actively involved together with those who have joined us along the way. The association with Dr Porter and Crop and Food Research strengthened to become a joint venture and together we continue to be committed to researching the properties of Tairawhiti East Cape Manuka Oil.

Tairawhiti Pharmaceuticals is now a significant contributor to the local community with over forty people employed in the harvest and production of Manuka Oil.
Most important of all, many people in New Zealand and around the world are now benefiting from the wonderful healing properties of Tairawhiti (East Cape) Manuka Oil.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

Tairawhiti Pharmaceuticals wishes to acknowledge the contribution and support of many individuals and organisations who have been a part of this development and who are not named here, including the Directors, Shareholders, landowners, harvesters, staff and all the others who have assisted us where they are able and helped spread the word on Manuka Oil. We also wish to acknowledge our customers both locally and internationally, many who have made significant contributions to the Research and promotion of this oil and its products.

You have continued to support our Company through difficult times and we believe that we are now able to reward your support and loyalty with the service and quality that you expect, and look forward to a long and trusting relationship well into the next century.