S1 Ep1: Delwyn Tuanui, Chatham Island Food Co

Running around Melbourne in his early 20s with a chilly bin full of Chatham Island blue cod, knocking on the doors of the city’s top chefs, Delwyn Tuanui knew he had a special product.

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Delwyn Tuanui is a seventh generation Chatham Islander

Coming from a long line of island farmers and fishermen, Del set up the Food Co. in 2011 as he wanted to share the island’s great food with the rest of the world, today and tomorrow.

Chatham Island Food Co was born out of challenging times. After having to cull livestock on his 3rd generation family farm due to a downturn on the island that saw the costs of getting product to market become higher than the product was worth, Delwyn decided a change was needed.

He went to Marcus Oldham agricultural College in Victoria to upskill in marketing and business. One night he cooked some Chatham Island blue cod for a bunch of Uni mates and their rave reviews prompted a light bulb moment.

From that point on Del started importing fresh Chatham Island Blue Cod. He borrowed his mate’s ute every Friday morning (heading off at 3am from uni) and personally delivered his fish to some of Melbourne’s top restaurants, where chefs were blown away with the quality and texture of the blue cod.

Chatham Island Food Co grew from these small beginnings and in 2014 Del, with his new wife Gigi, whom he met at Marcus Oldham, moved back to the Island where they purchased a fish processing facility. While there have been many challenges, Chatham Island Food Co continues to grow and innovate. The focus has always been on working with the best local fishermen to produce seafood of outstanding quality whilst adhering to sustainable fishing practices.

While primarily focused on making wonderful kaimoana directly available to Kiwis across New Zealand through an online store, all product is export quality and able to be exported worldwide.