As a country, we're a humble bunch. There's a whakatauki ` 'Kaore te kumara e korero mo tona ake reka,' which basically means, 'Don't blow your own trumpet.' But that doesn't mean that others can't. I'm going to explore the success of Maori exporting all around the world ` from America, all across Asia, the UK,... throughout Europe, to the Middle East. Nau mai ki Gate To The Globe. Copyright Able 2018 The Middle East ` He tawhiti rawa ki Aotearoa. Home to some of the world's richest countries, companies and whanau, which seems appropriate to share the whakatauki... And guess what, Maori are exporting here to some pretty incredible and remote locations ` like butter to Azerbaijan, lamb to Oman, kapa haka and venison to Dubai, Now, of course, Dubai is world famous for its high-rise buildings and its skyscraper landscapes, and that's kind of in complete contrast to our first korero, which takes us to picturesque Pukawa, home to one of the largest venison suppliers in Aotearoa, the Waihi Pukawa Trust. Ko Ngati Tuwharetoa ratou, nestled on the side of beautiful Lake Taupo. And their venison ends up in the Burj Khalifa at the tallest restaurant on the planet. We can't really have a good AGM without a parakuihi. Is this trout from the lake? Yes. Fresh? Yeah, caught last night. Perfect. We're here today for the AGM of one of our farming blocks, Waihi Pukawa trust, which is in the, sort of, southern area of the lake, and we're at Pukawa Marae, one of the beneficiary maraes of the block. What are your main farming outputs? We're your normal sheep and beef, with a little bit of deer, but because of the nitrogen cap, we've had a look at the situation and decided to go more in the deer area. Nitrogen discharge off a deer is less than cow, and also from an environmental perspective and tikanga perspective was 'look after our waterways and look after the lake.' And so deer seemed to be the right stock unit to progress, really. Farming deer has also helped Waihi Pukawa to diversify and to become debt free. We have six beneficiary maraes for Waihi Pukawa, and every year we give a marae grant as well as a dividend to the owners. So you guys are one of the biggest venison providers in Aotearoa ` is that true? Certainly in the North Island. Yeah, we're putting about 1800 deer through the works each year, and that's not counting the cull of older stock. Why do you think your deer and your venison is so sought after internationally? There's not a lot of good quality venison in the world, and most of what there is comes from New Zealand. And we've taken another step in that we're selling a lot of younger-type animals that are a lot better eating experience for these guys. How does it feel to know that those guys are making it all the way to one of the most high-end restaurants on the planet? It's a bit of a buzz, really. Yeah. It's pretty southern, eh? From the rolling green hills to the desert. Yeah, pretty much. Where this deer comes from is obviously a very iconic New Zealand landscape, but where it ends up on the plate is also quite famous. It's famous for a different kind of landscape ` the tallest building in the world ` in the business hub of the Middle East, Dubai. (MIDDLE EASTERN MUSIC) Check it out. The Burj Khalifa is 828m high, which means it's the highest thing that human beings have ever built. 57 elevators, eight escalators, just mind-blowingly tall. On level 122 is Atmosphere Restaurant, which is one of the most exclusive restaurants on the planet, not to mention, the highest. (FUNKY MUSIC) And this is the place where the venison from Waihi Pukawa ends up. So, this is your restaurant. I've seen worse views. Yeah, it's pretty cool. We are 442m above the ground. We're a fine-dining restaurant ` 90 seats. Kind of like a modern European style of cooking. Normally people come here on their special occasions. We get a lot of proposals, a lot of out-of-town guests, people want to, kind of, show them the sights. We had Mariah Carey in last week. Will Smith comes here regularly. Wow. Here it is. This is the Waihi Pukawa venison. We were just on the farm watching Bambi run around. (LAUGHS) Why do you like this venison? Obviously Dubai, with our location, it's quite difficult to get decent products. There's not a lot of venison running around down there. It's really important to get fresh products for me, and luckily I've found this fantastic product. It's pretty much the only fresh, grass-fed, GMO-free, organic venison that you can source in this part of the world. By far, better than any of the other options on the market, and it tastes fantastic. (SERENE MUSIC) Why are you serving it in this style? It's a good product. I believe to leave is as natural as possible. You get the full flavour of the venison, and the texture as well lends itself perfectly to eating raw. Yeah, wow. This is crazy, so raw venison? Yeah, why not? Oh my gosh. And so that has a lot to do with just the quality of the product, the flavour of the dishes? Yeah, you can't serve a product raw unless it's, like, the top quality, otherwise you're going to kill someone, right? (LAUGHS) Yes! Here he is, all the way from Waihi Pukawa to the top of the world. All right, a nice big slice there. I'm going to get a lot of it. You have to. OK, sahtain. Sahtain. Oh wow! It's like butter. Like, so soft and creamy. It's fantastic, it is. Wow, Chris. This is just... divine. Thank you. I can taste Lake Taupo. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm gonna enjoy more of it. But venison isn't the only thing we're exporting to Dubai. We're also bringing Maori culture to the stage. More on that after the break. 1 (KAPA HAKA GROUP CHANT) When you think Rotorua, you think kapa haka. Maori culture goes hand in hand with this town, so it's no surprise that Jamus Webster lives here. Kapa haka is his life, and he's even crafted a career out of it. (SHOUTS) This place is amazing. So, this is Tamaki Village? This is Tamaki Village. It was an idea or vision of two brothers, Mike and Doug Tamaki ` bringing that culture away from the town and bringing it into its natural habitat. Mu pare. Mu pae. Mu putahi. 'Kapa haka is my life. I eat it. I sleep it. It's everything. 'I've been doing it for a while now.' Gotta make sure you turn your body. Also, too, there's my working with schools. You know, I teach Maori performing arts, kapa haka to the schools. so that we can provide opportunities and good foundations for our students. That's all we need to do today, boys. Well done. 'I also have the opportunity where I send people overseas.' Jamus and his whanau have sent over 40 different performers over the last eight years to live in Dubai where they have a resident kapa haka group that performs six nights a week in the Marriott Hotel. How do you go about setting up kapa haka in Dubai? It's all about networking. I come across a guy known as Clinton, and he works with all the entertainment based in Dubai. What are you trying to convey the most to tourists? What's the most important message? It's all about educating them about who we are as Maori, and that's about our identity, our uniqueness. (SNARLS) And from kapa haka in Rotorua... to here in Dubai, where you'll find kapa haka performed on stage at the JW Mariott six nights a week. It's a hotel complete with eight restaurants and lots of different entertainment attractions. One of which is the Bamboo Lagoon, where you can find these guys, Te Mana ` Kei runga, kei raro. ALL: Hi! Ha! Hi! Ha! the group of four kapa haka performers that live here at the hotel for 11 months of the year. # E hine, hoki mai ra. TK, you're Jamus' brother. Jamus' brother. More handsome brother? Yup, of course. This is the green room? Yeah, this is our green room. This is a pretty nice green room. Flash, eh? (LAUGHS) Kia ora, bro. This is Hiwirori. This is Erana and Moana. So you're performing kapa haka here in Dubai. That's your job. Yup. That's our mahi, bro. What's the show about? It's obviously kapa haka, but it's not kapa haka in Aotearoa. We start off with cabaret music... (ALL CHANT) ...and then, yeah, get straight into our haka set. The people love it here. So, yeah, it must be pretty popular. How many people are you getting through the door? Average reservation, 80. And then when it's really busy, it's just under 200. # ...te atu ra ki te huarahi, oh # How's that feeling, putting out the show to almost 200 people every night? Must be electric. Yeah, nah, it's awesome. It's awesome. Well, cos there's the new Disney out, Moana... Of course. You've got the little kids, you know, they love it. They love us, yeah. They come up to me and they go, 'Hey, you're Maui.' (BOTH LAUGH) Te Mana's performance bracket is a mixture of Polynesian influences and kapa haka, and this is their agent, who has over 300 groups on his books, all performing in Dubai. ...karanga titaha! (GROUP PERFORM HAKA) Dubai's such a multi-cultural city, and we have groups from all over the world performing in different hotels, different entertainers, and this is one part of the world you will find entertainers performing every night in Dubai, unlike various other parts of the world where it's only on weekends. MAN: Kia ora. Kia ora. Kia ora. Kia ora. From one kapa haka group to the home of the champions of Te Matatini, Whangara-Mai-Tawhiti ` the settlement that's famous on the East Coast for their tipuna paikea. It also helped that they did a movie ` Whale Rider, with Keisha Castle-Hughes. But they're not the only superstars. It turns out they breed some pretty good lamb here as well, which, of all places, ends up in Oman. Over a hundred years now. Yeah, yes. 101. In those days, in the early days, it was all small farming. Everybody had their own, and this is why in the '30s, Sir Apirana Ngata came and started to form the incorporations because the land was being sold off and things like that. Farming for over a century ` that's no small feat. What do you put that success down to? It was wise people. People that knew how you had to farm, how you had to treat people that were on your farm, and we would never treat people just like workers. They have to belong and don't necessarily have to be family, but we make them feel like family. Tell me about Whangara Farms. Whangara Farms is a partnership of three Maori incorporations. All the lands that you can see around us, that's all part of the Maori lands, and we have 2500 shareholders, and we farm about 8500ha. (DOG BARKS, SHEEP BLEAT) You're actually just a caretaker here for the future generations, cos the land will always be here for the people. What's your main product? The main product is lamb ` lamb and mutton ` but we also have about 8000 cattle as well. We're about a 60/40 split. So lamb is pretty important for you guys? Yes, I mean, we produce over 50,000 lambs annually, and we sell nearly 40,000 lambs that get killed into Silver Fern and then get exported is probably around 15,000 to 20,000. We also produce some locally which we market in the local Pak'n'Save. So I guess it's about trying to get that high-value product out there into the world. Yes, yeah, I guess, you know, lamb is becoming a bit of a niche product, and I think that it's really important that we look at creating relationships where we can get a premium for it. (DOG BARKS) These are some new lambs that are up to weight, so they've got the right weight, and you just put your finger on the backbone, and what you're checking for is to make sure it's a nice, smooth covering cos that's the fat. Right. Not just bone. Yeah, so that's too lean. Yup. If you put your fingers on that one there, you can see it's quite thick. Yeah, right. Rounds off a bit. And it's quite rounded around its bum too, whereas that one there's a bit bony, so that one there, we'd say, 'Yes, that's an export lamb.' He's going. He's going. Going to Oman. From the humble seaside farm in Whangara, I don't think you're going to find a more stunning contrast. Kei Muscat tatou. This is the capital of Oman. As you can see, it's a port city, which means the place is completely dominated by trade. Situated right on the moana, and with a view of the Hajjar Mountains, this is Oman's first-ever five-star hotel, the InterContinental. (JAZZY MUSIC) We're here to meet executive chef Pascal who just happens to be French and also working in Oman. He runs the kitchen at the hotel, where he has a staff of 45 chefs. What do people expect, from your restaurant, do you think, when they come here to dine? I will say, as an international branch, they look for a very high level of standard. They like to be emotional connection. How much lamb are you ordering in peak lamb season? Ramadan, we use around 220kg a day. 220kg lamb per day, and how do you like to cook lamb here in Oman? Is it traditional, is it modern? What's the way? We try, that we are in Oman, is to use the Oman culture of the food. I use a classic lamb chop, and I will marinate with what they name shuwa. It is a very classic way to eat the lamb, and I will combine that with apricot, with asparagus, with different taste. (JAZZY MUSIC) So this is Whangara lamb cooked in Omani style. I cannot wait. First I want to try the marinade because I've been eyeing that thing up for, like, the last half an hour. Oh, wow! That flavour is so good. Thank you. You've got the tamarind, you've got a bit of chilli or a bit of spice... Chilli, coriander, garlic, and it's very a mix of all. It's funny because, like, mum does curried chops when we have lamb at home, you know, so on the other side of the world, and it's still similar kind of recipes, similar ideas. I will come to visit you and to try your mum's food. (CHUCKLES) Oh, it's out of control. Thank you so much. That was absolutely incredible and so inspiring to see what New Zealand lamb is doing in the Middle East in Oman. It's incredible. From the beautiful and very colourful Oman, we're heading north to Azerbaijan, but after the break, we're heading from the plate back to the gate in Taranaki. 1 Kei Taranaki tatou. Now, this next story is about butter that goes from Taranaki into the Middle East. In particular, though, it's about the supplier of the main ingredient of butter ` now, that ingredient is, of course, milk, and that supplier is PKW. Parininihi ki Waitotara PKW, he` e tino korero mo te tongi o Taranaki Whanui. Taranaki ai iwi spread from the north, Parininihi ` that's the white cliffs up there in Ngati Tama land. It stretches right around the coast of Taranaki Maunga, down into the south into Nga Rauru, who is our southernmost iwi. And this is some pretty hallowed ground that we're standing on. What's the history of the land here? Yeah, well, Parihaka is significant because it's really the legacy of land being confiscated post the land wars of the early 1860s, and PKW was set up to administer some of the reserves that were for our tupuna. There was about 200,000ha. But, of course, that through the administration of those 200,000ha over a 100-year period, by the 1970s when we realised, actually, they've been selling it off block by block, and it was down to 20,000ha. 'Administering' often meant selling it on. 'Administering' was an interesting term. Yeah. My uncles of the 1970s that decided we were going to set up this corporation and look after those 20,000ha, and do something about it for benefit of our people moving forward. And the commercial end has become very successful over the last 45 years. PKW are now the largest supplier of milk in Taranaki. Tell me about the operations that you're running here. So, combined, we do 2.7 million litres of milk, which were crates for Fonterra ` cos we buy direct Fonterra ` just over a million slabs of butter. So it's a pretty substantial... It's a lot of butter. Yeah, over 30 farms. We're not one contiguous farm set-up. We're dispersed across Taranaki. And they're answerable to 9500 shareholders, who, rightly so, are passionate about the whenua. For them, it's a treasure. It's a real affinity to the whenua. They take real ownership of that. We have some shareholders who have got one share. But for them, that just gives them an attachment to the whenua. And in terms of what you're putting out there, and it's going all over the world, how is it for you guys to hear that it's going into the Middle East, of all places? I was really blown away when I was told earlier on the places where it's going offshore, and again, it says a lot about Taranaki as a region, you know, that the maunga really is the centrepiece of everything we do. I think it's fantastic. This is the milk from PKW Farm, but obviously it's not quite ready yet because it's not butter, so the next step is... here at the Whareroa Fonterra factory in Hawera. Whareroa produces about 30 tons of butter every single hour, so if you can do some fast math, that's, like, close to 90,000 tons in a single year. And these here ` they might look like, sort of, commercial, wholesale blocks of butter ` they're 5kg ` but actually, overseas this is what consumers buy in the supermarket. This butter is destined to go somewhere in the Middle East, which is where we're going, so from here in Taranaki, Whareroa Factory to... here, in Azerbaijan. (MIDDLE EASTERN MUSIC) This is Baku; it's the capital of Azerbaijan. It's also the most populated city, and it's a bit of crossroads for Asia, the Middle East and Europe. That is the Caspian Sea, and over that way is Iran. Over that way is Russia. This is crazy to me that butter is coming halfway around the world to Azerbaijan. Why is it such a thing here? It's a big thing because Israelis love butter, especially from New Zealand. It's an integral part of the day-to-day cuisine here. The New Zealand butter has clear properties, colour, aroma and taste. It's` Really, they can pick it up from a great distance. And how much do they love it, are they selling out shops? We get our butter in around 10,000 metric tons a year, which is equal to 400 containers, and they buy it out of 3200 outlets, so from this distribution centre, you take the shops to 3200 outlets across Azerbaijan. We supply out butter from Taranaki ` a factory called Whareroa. Whareroa, yes, of course. Been there. Yes, and that's got a factory code printed on this carton, which is 4772. So consumers in market, in Azerbaijan, know the exact factory where this butter comes from, and they seek that out? Absolutely. We literally eat butter. Hang on, hang on. We all put butter on toast, but they're just dipping it and eating it? The kids loves to consume butter here. It's healthy. It's part of the healthy diet here. Wow, that's crazy. Azerbaijan has a population of 10 million, but they're consuming two million servings of butter every day. In particular, it's butter from Taranaki, which they've been eating for 25 years. Knowing that Azerbaijanis are so fanatical about their butter, I really want to get around the dinner table to get the full experience. Kitchen Granny, hello. How you doing? Nice to meet you. This looks pretty amazing. What are we cooking here? We are cooking traditional food today, actually, which is called pilaf, plov. Plov? Pilaf, plov. Yes. Plov, yes. (BOTH LAUGH) So it's made from rice, actually, and with lots of other ingredients which my granny knows better. There is a lot of butter. We actually use butter a lot in Azerbaijan in many dishes. And we call plov the king of the Israeli cuisine. The smell. (SPEAKS AZERBAIJANI) Beautiful. And this kuia is an expert. She can tell Taranaki butter from anything else on the shelf. (SPEAKS AZERBAIJANI) That part, yeah. So Granny's saying, 'Don't waste the butter.' There we go. It looks so clear, cos normally when you melt butter it gets fat at the top. Yes, but she cleans it all the time. She drains it, takes the butter. So it's, like, clarified? Yes, until it's clear. Wow. Ah, yes. Time for the all-important taste test. (SPEAKS AZERBAIJANI) And remember that because we're in Azerbaijan, this is actually really healthy and good for you, so... So this haerenga started 23,000km ago in Taranaki, but the crazy thing is that despite their distance, despite how far we've travelled and where we are, still, at the end of the day, it's just another whanau in Azerbaijan, on the other side of the would, enjoying conversation and whanau and butter. (GENTLE MUSIC) Our venison is here at the tallest building in the world, our kapa haka perform to crowds of 200, six nights a week, and our lamb recognised for its quality in Oman, and I think that's a lesson for us at home. Tipu ma toro ki te ao. Realise your potential, and share it with the wold. Captions by Florence S. Fournier. Edited by Desney Shaw. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2018