Growing up on the edge of the Hauraki Plains in northern North Island of New Zealand during the 1960s was a time of great fascination.

During the summer months, I would climb the nearest hill and watch huge bonfires glowing in the distance as land owners burned the tree stumps cleared from wetlands to create new pasture for dairy farming.

Two-thirds of the Hauraki Plains, covering 780 square kilometers, was eventually drained and converted into highly productive farms and there was great celebration when a factory was built in the middle of the region to process milk.

Opened in 1956, the Kerepehi Dairy Factory was the largest in the southern hemisphere with two adjacent plants producing cheese and milk powder. Many of the 300-strong workforce lived in the immediate area, but when the factory closed in 1991, families were forced to leave the area in search of other work.

Situated just a few hundred meters off the main highway between Auckland and the coastal city of Tauranga, Kerepehi is a ‘blink and you miss it’ community so the passing traffic never saw the scars of economic decline – the vacant buildings, the broken windows and the empty Scout Den that was once alive with the sounds of excited youngsters.

Fast forward to 2019, and Kerepehi once again has a spring in its step. The old Hauraki Hotel on the main highway is still closed, but new buildings are being constructed in a nearby industrial zone as the community once again becomes a magnet for business.

And Kerepehi can thank China for this new lease of life.

In 2016, the state-owned Beijing Allied Faxi Food Company opened a NZ$30 million (19.5 million U.S. dollars) state-of-the-art ice-cream factory next to the old plant to take advantage of the existing cool stores and have easy access to nearby ports and high quality milk which is being processed into American-style ice cream for export to China under the G’nature and Baxy premium brands.

Many of the factory’s 55 full-time jobs have been taken by grateful Kerepehi locals like Quality Control Manager Gaylene Watene who says she loves being able to work in her hometown rather than have to drive up to one hour every day for work elsewhere.

Factory worker Lorrayne Neil has also returned from Australia and says “it’s really good just to be back in the community” although she’s not so happy about rising property prices, which have doubled in just a few years as the population has grown to more than 500 people.
Hauraki District Council Mayor, John Tregidga, can take a lot of credit for the Allied Faxi investment. A keen supporter of cultural exchanges, he has visited China more than a dozen times and helped to arrange homestays for almost 300 local college students in Jiading near Shanghai.

Acutely aware of the problems caused by the depopulation of small rural communities, John was determined “that wasn’t going to happen” to Kerepehi so the Council spent millions of dollars upgrading the local water treatment plant to attract Allied Faxi as the anchor tenant – and spark the current economic revival.