Our Origins
Deeply Rooted in Social Enterprise
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.
Pioneering Medicinal Cannabis in Aotearoa
In 2018, HBLP established the Hikurangi Cannabis Company (HCC), pioneering the NZ cannabis industry. HCC became the first company to receive a medical cannabis cultivation licence and established the country’s first research and breeding programme in Ruatorea.
The company spearheaded the establishment of our industry body, The New Zealand Medicinal Cannabis Council, and Manu became its founding president. Some six months later, Manu was appointed to the Ministry of Health’s Medicinal Cannabis Advisory Group, helping to build the legislative framework for our industry.
In that same year, Waiapu Investments Limited was set up to allow East Coast whānau to invest in the company. We raised $1.4m in five days. Such was the fascination with the kaupapa and this new industry that, when the offer was opened up to the rest of the country, demand broke the crowdfunding platform - the company raising $600,000 in six minutes. This incredible support attracted two institutional investors who invested another $7m.
Rua imported high THC seed into New Zealand and completed a full research harvest. We raised an additional $4m in capital and steadily developed our facilities in Ruatorea and Turanga. By 2019, the company was valued at $13m and made the bold move to rebrand to Rua Bioscience.
Busting Boundaries
In 2020, Rua became the first company founded by a Māori community to list on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. We opened the year valued at $50m. At IPO, Rua raised another $20m taking our value to $70m. On the day of listing, the share price increased. For a time, the company was valued at over $100m.
We signed a New Zealand-exclusive, binding sales agreement with German distributor Nimbus Health in the same year. We completed the construction of the region’s first purpose-built pharmaceutical manufacturing facility in Gisborne. We also commissioned our cultivation centre in Ruatorea – making the first significant investment in infrastructure the community had seen in some decades.
Photo: Panapa Ehau, Rob Mitchell and Manu Caddie in Ruatorea as Rua listed on the NZX. Image courtesy of the Gisborne Herald.
Preparing for Commercialisation
In 2021, the team worked on two fronts - preparing to enter local and global medicinal cannabis markets in 2022 and developing long-term opportunities across the medicinal cannabis value chain.
2021 was the year in which we gained GMP of our Gisborne-based manufacturing facility and Medsafe certification of our first product.
It is also the year we launched our first major agri-tech collaboration. Alongside the University of Waikato, we announced a ground-breaking, two-year research programme to investigate the application of hyperspectral technology to the cultivation and assessment of medicinal cannabis, paving the way for Rua to enter the global cannabis testing industry to be worth around $2.5b (US$1,806m) by 2025.
Entering the NZ Market
In April 2022, Rua launched its first medicine in Aotearoa, marking a significant milestone for New Zealand patients, prescribers and the medicinal cannabis industry.
Available on prescription in New Zealand, GPs and specialists who are registered medical practitioners will now be able to include Rua’s medicine in patient treatment plans.
The medicine’s launch was complemented by what we believe to be New Zealand’s first compassionate access scheme for medicinal cannabis - an important moment for the company and the community it was created for.
In launching our first product, Rua became one of just two companies in New Zealand manufacturing medicinal cannabis that had met the minimum quality standards as set out by the Medicinal Cannabis Agency. We also stood alone as the only manufacturer with an explicit social mission to benefit its founding community.
