Guided by our founding principles, Ponotanga - Integrity, Mauitanga - Innovation, Oranga - Health prioritisation, and Whakawhanaungatanga - Collaborative success, Rua Bioscience aims for a fair local medicinal cannabis industry. We prioritise community well-being as we share our unique genetics globally.
We are a Maori-born biotech business and are the only New Zealand-based medicinal cannabis company with an explicit focus on delivering social impact.
We’re a unique collective of dual forces: science and nature, land and people, commerce and community, modern innovation, and ancestral wisdom. These connections bring balance and integrity to our business.
Like many rural populations, the East Coast of New Zealand has been ravaged by decades of slow economic growth – the promise of employment and opportunity in urban centres historically encouraging our people away from whanau and whenua. The options for haukainga, particularly in the primary industries, have mainly been destructive – often unsafe and unsustainable.
Our bid to spur rural economic growth from within, to look to innovation and a more sustainable way of creating wealth in Te Tairawhiti is not new. We stand on the shoulders of giants and beside some pretty inspiring companies, organisations and individuals. So, while we recognise the importance of our work in this moment, we also understand that we are part of a much longer journey toward economic sustainability.
For us, that journey started in 2015 when Hikurangi Takiwa Trust was looking for ways to create jobs that attract whānau home to the whenua and their marae. As hui were had and whakaaro shared, the concept of a social enterprise that would generate employment and reinvest profits back into businesses and environmental projects grew. Hikurangi Enterprises (HEL) was born from that conversation, with Panapa Ehau and others spearheading its mahi.
HEL initially set about researching the commercial potential of Kanuka and Kina. HEL created a partnership with New Zealand Nutraceuticals Ltd (NZNL), a company co-owned by Manu Caddie. The new partnership was called Hikurangi Bioactives Limited Partnership (HBLP). With additional Government funding, HBLP undertook research and explored several commercial opportunities, including hemp, which they were licensed to cultivate in 2016.
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