The sudden decision by Invest New Zealand (NZTE) to axe its US and Europe-based staff and scrap the offshore roadshow model—despite the Active Investor Plus (AIP) visa pulling in nearly $4 billion NZD in total committed and pipeline investments—comes down to a deliberate government shift from public sector recruitment to private sector self-sufficiency, budget realignment, and its response to operational friction behind the scenes. Friction arising from the fact that well connected, big metro based "Managed Funds" are now the de-facto "gatekeepers" of this foreign investment. Creating a fee gravy train but once again marginalizing agribiz centric rural Aotearoa / NZ in the process.
With Wellington's politically nuanced bureaucrats now getting out of the frontline and ostensibly creating a more transparent private sector playing field, we plan to open a retail showcase in the Laguna / Newport Beach corridor. This specific coastal strip in Orange County, California, has one of the highest concentrations of ultra-high-net-worth individuals (UHNWIs) in the United States. Our resident director is a US citizen, meaning we bypass the grueling US commercial visa process, allowing us to establish our dual-purpose retail and investment hub immediately.
This is planned to provide a "Listing Board" in a retail store, "Showcase" environment that will restore visibility to Emerging Growth Companies (EGC) in rural NZ to HNW US investors looking to make a direct and "Active" investment into a NZ agribiz sector EGC.

Due to the current New Zealand Government's original decision to remove the "Live Listings Board" where individual NZ Emerging Growth Companies (EGC) could list their opportunity for Direct Investment by foreign investors wishing to gain residency in the country via the "Active Investor Plus" (AIP) Residency-by-Investment program, rural NZ based agribiz EGC's lost all Govt supported visibility to these foreign investors.
A situation that was exacerbated by the fact that to gain any form of investment offering visibility to AIP program seeking foreign investors, only Govt approved "Managed Funds" were permitted to promote their Fund offering under the AIP program. Of the 72 Funds approved, only 7 operated in the Agribiz sector. Zero operated in the native plant-based bioeconomy sector.
Considering that over 70% of NZ's exports come from the agricultural sector, this was indeed a bizarre Govt created anomaly that prevailed for too long in a world increasingly turning to natural products sourced through land-based agriculture. Not a laboratory.
Below we present our first "listing" - this one in a Māori economy supporting rural agribiz in the far-north of Te Tai Tokerau.
Located in the Kohumaru Valley in the Mangonui region of Te Tai Tokerau Province in the far north of Aotearoa/ New Zealand, the founding Māori whānau own 581 hectares. This whenua representing Phase 1 of what is planned to become a 1,935 hectare bioeconomy precinct with a marae in the heart of the precinct providing the cultural soul.
Comprising 4 Phases, the second phase provides for the purchase of a 174 hectare pastoral farm that upon closing will form the Precinct's working "Campus" featuring a 153 hectare hybrid kanuka tea tree plantation, 8 hectare nursery, 10 hectare production/research zone plus 3 hectares of residential compound. Th first ever NZ tea tree bioeconomy dedicated project in NZ history focusing on extracting the maximum possible commercial value from the biomass supplied by local "Whanau-on-the-Whenua" biomass owner/suppliers of this 9,000,000+ year old, native plant duality and its 1,000+ year ethnobotanical legacy.
Launching with a hero feedstock distillate produced as a byproduct of the oil extraction process. We call this hero "Life-Force 9M"
Allocation of 600,000 CVS to support the SoCal Market Activation and commencement of the "Life-Force 9M" health extract pre-launch marketing support campaign.
Moves beyond the limitations of the mānuka honey model to establish a diversified, more resilient sector.
Structured to deliver high-value, New Zealand–sourced products into US and international markets.
Designed as a replicable model enabling Māori landowners and rural enterprises to participate / scale into global value chains.
“He taonga nō te whenua, me tiaki mō ngā uri whakatipu”
“A treasure from the land must be protected for future generations”
9,000,000 YEARS OF NATURE DID NOT BEGIN IN A LABORATORY.
Neither did this story.
Taking 9,000,000 years of extraordinary evolutionary history of an endemic botanical duality; 1,000+ years of customary Rongoā Rakāu Māori knowledge and application by tangata whenua substantiating historical customary usage through to the current day where the taonga continues to grow on intergenerationally held whenua, with today's whānau-on-the-whenua participating in its commercialisation.
This USD5M investment activates a defined US market-entry programme delivering to incoming participants post-money interests of (a) 22.7% interest in NZ production and (b) 38% of global distribution operations.

My name is Linda Brink; a US citizen and my job is to open the Showcase.
I have lived in NZ for 10 years working with "Whanau-on-the-Whenua" on the Kohumaru Tea Tree Bioeconomy Precinct project.
From this Māori bioeconomy agribiz project, I now understand the nuances of the rural NZ investment process.
See you in SoCal!
DOC-1448 NZD500k - Private Placement (PP) EOI (pdf)
DownloadDOC-5550 NZD3.5M Bridge Line Inquiry Paper -100826 (pdf)
DownloadDOC-6012 - Invitation to Partner in the Tea Tree Valley Campus. (pdf)
DownloadDOC-7001 Kohumaru Angels NZD500k PP Term Sheet (pdf)
DownloadDOC-7002 -Rule 504 Reg-D PPM-USD5M (pdf)
DownloadDOC-7008- NZD3.5M Precinct Exec Summ (pdf)
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