Two Maori farming trusts, Wairarapa Moana Incorporation and Tuaropaki Kaitiaki Ltd., have joined forces in the dairy processing and export venture.

 

The plant is being built on farm land at Mokai, about 30km north-west of Taupo, in time to start processing milk in late July or early August next year.

 

The chair of the dairy company Miraka Ltd., Kingi Smiler, said it will have the capacity to process about 1.1 million litres of milk a day at its peak.

 

Smiler said grouping together to establish the company was thought to be a better way to provide sustainable returns to landowners. "We're inter-generational farmers, this is a really long-term view, and there are already three or four other trusts that are part of our grouping,'' he said.