A one-stop search engine for kai Māori, where buyers can find any kai they are craving around Aotearoa with just a few clicks is the vision of Kāuta, a new company formed to make kai motuhake a reality.
Kai experts Rewi Spraggon and Grant Kitchen created the website www.kauta.co.nz to encourage a sustainable Māori supply chain, where farmers and producers are recognised for their mahi by demand for their goods.
“This will be the first time ever since all Māori nationally have come together on one platform to share (kai) with the motu, to share with Te Ao,” Spraggon says.
“It’s been long overdue for us to have access. It's quite hard to find Māori suppliers … when you're looking for the likes of horopito, when you're looking for a whole lot of things, you need that accessibility. This is really making it accessible to everyone at home,”
Kāuta is all about cutting out the middleman.
“We are connecting the people directly, the buyer to the supplier, there is no cost. The only reason Kāuta survives is through sponsorship, so we don't have to put the burden back on to the consumers or back onto our suppliers,”
“It's a game-changer for marae, it's a game-changer for Māori in general.”
Māori want to support Māori
“The idea is you are getting fresh produce at your fingertips, and the beauty of Māori supplying Māori kai is we understand the tikanga, we have a story to it and so that's the game-changer,”
“It's more about connecting these little Māori businesses that don't have marketing skills. Now we have Kāuta, we can actually market for them,” Spraggon says.
Kāuta is in its first phase of development as it invites both suppliers and buyers to register on its website.
“The reason we want to have every buyer register is because we don't want people to on-sell products," he says.
“It's awesome and it’s owned by all of us, so get on there whānau and, if you want a hākari for your whānau, then Kāuta is there to help you,”