19 Apr 2013

Niue maintains noni farm despite Reef demise

6:38 pm on 19 April 2013

The Niue government says it is continuing to maintain a noni farm on the island despite the loss of its joint venture partner, the Reef Group, five months ago.

Auckland-based Reef went into receivership last November.

The premier, Toke Talagi5_archive.rnzi.bulletins_archive

, says they are still waiting for Reef's receivers, PricewaterhouseCoopers, to say what they will do with their shares.

The noni farm was part of a Reef scheme, also involving farmers in the Cook Islands and Samoa, to export noni to China.

Reef also had a half share in a huge fish processing plant on the island, which has been mothballed for seven years.

Mr Talagi says his government has been approached by a number of parties interested in returning it to production, but no decisions have been made.