Bay of Plenty Region

When Captain Cook sailed into Te Moana-a-Toitehuatahi in November 1769, he named it Bay of Plenty for the cultivated fields and abundant food that contrasted sharply with nearby Poverty Bay. That observation of agricultural productivity remains the region's defining feature 250 years later—but the crop has changed from kūmara to kiwifruit, creating a concentration of agricultural output that would make any ecologist nervous.

The Bay of Plenty produces 80% of New Zealand's kiwifruit, with orchards around Te Puke generating $1.82 billion in export revenue (2022/23). Zespri's 2024/25 season forecasts exceed $4.5 billion globally from over 190 million trays—a record crop. This extraordinary specialization follows the same logic as ecological niche partitioning: the volcanic soils, subtropical climate, and established infrastructure create conditions that competitors elsewhere cannot replicate. Path dependence has locked in the advantage; decades of investment in pack houses, cool stores, and the Port of Tauranga's container facilities make relocation economically irrational.

Yet monoculture vulnerability looms. Climate modelling by NIWA scientists projects that the Hayward variety—representing half the production around Te Puke—will become commercially unviable in this location by century's end as winter chill hours decline. The region faces the same evolutionary pressure that reshapes species distributions: adapt, migrate, or decline. Some growers are diversifying into gold kiwifruit varieties; others are eyeing cooler southern regions. The Bay of Plenty's abundance, like all ecological plenty, carries the seeds of its own transformation.