Number of Māori businesses
The estimated number of Māori-owned businesses
Source: Stats NZ Integrated Data Infrastructure
This page contains information about Māori-owned businesses in the food and fibre sector. We estimated the number of Māori-owned businesses within our industry groups as part of building a bigger picture about the involvement of Māori in the sector.
A Māori-owned business was defined as a business which meets one or more of the following criteria:
- A business that pays at least 50% of wages to active shareholders, directors or partners of Māori ethnicity or descent.
- A business identified as Māori by Stats NZ.
This is aligned to the definition used by Nicholson Consulting for the Te Matapaeroa 2020 report1, which is an analysis of Māori business across New Zealand. The report was commissioned by Te Puni Kōkiri, the Ministry of Māori Development.
These estimates only include businesses with ownership data available, and roughly one-third of all businesses have ownership data available.
The percentage of businesses that were classified as Māori-owned businesses varies significantly across industry groups. For example, in 2021, fewer than 2% of businesses in the Vegetable Growing and Veterinary industry groups are Māori-owned, compared to 29% in the Seafood industry. While Seafood has the highest percentage of businesses that are estimated to be Māori-owned, in 2021 the largest number of Māori-owned businesses in the sector are in Sheep, Beef and Deer Farming (1,455 businesses – 11% of businesses), followed by Dairy Farming (915 businesses – 11% of businesses). This is because some industry groups have a larger number of businesses overall, hence, a smaller percentage can equal a greater number of businesses. Presenting both the number and the percentage helps to differentiate the industries that have a higher share of Māori-owned businesses from the industries that have a higher total number of Māori-owned businesses. Since 2019, there has been a small decrease in the number of businesses owned by Māori in both the Sheep, Beef and Deer Farming industry group and Dairy Farming industry group, however, their percentage within the industry has remained the same at 11%.
Within each industry, the number of Māori-owned businesses can also vary across sub-industries. For example, in 2021 within the Seafood industry group, we estimate that 33% (183 businesses) of Fishing businesses, 24% (30 businesses) of Aquaculture businesses, 11% (12 businesses) of Seafood Processing businesses and 6% (3 businesses) of Fish and Seafood Wholesaling businesses were Māori-owned.
Similarly, within the Sheep, Beef and Deer Farming group, Shearing Services has the highest percentage of Māori-owned businesses (34% - 90 businesses) in 2021, but Sheep and Beef Farming has the highest total number of businesses (10% - 1,333 businesses). We estimate 5% (32 businesses) of Deer Farming businesses were Māori-owned in 2021. In some cases, we also see an alignment between Māori-owned businesses and the percentage of people in the workforce who identify as Māori, with 66% of the Shearing Services workforce identifying as Māori in 2021.
Overall, 18% of businesses in the Forestry group are Māori owned in 2021. This is broken down between three sub-industries. Forestry Support Services has the highest percentage of Māori-owned businesses (26% - 92 businesses), followed by the Logging sub-industry (25% - 125 businesses) within this grouping. While the Forestry sub-industry has the lowest percentage of Māori-owned businesses in the industry, it has the highest number of businesses overall (13% - 171 businesses). Although the Forestry industry group has the second largest percentage (18%) of overall Māori-owned businesses in the sector in 2021, and 32% of the workforce identify as Māori, Māori remain underrepresented2 at ownership and leadership levels in other parts of the supply chain.