The middle of dairy farming country in the heart of the North Island is one of the more unlikely places to find an ostrich farm. It’s an even more unlikely place to find a former stock market dealer from South Korea . But the small rural town of Galatea, in the Bay of Plenty, is where Hyo Sup Bae set up his ostrich farm five and a half years ago.
Kadesh Ostrich Farm sells ostrich meat to over 100 restaurants in New Zealand, South Korea and Japan, and is developing a new market in Singapore Hyo Sup Bae has a ‘farm to plate’ operation where he is involved in virtually every aspect of production and marketing. The only major step he doesn’t do himself is slaughtering the birds, but he plans to set up his own slaughter plant in the next couple of years.
In 1997, after 20 years dealing billions of dollars worth of stocks and bonds in Seoul, Hyo Sup Bae was ready for a new life in a new country. Forecasting international financial markets and bank interest rates was very stressful and he felt the time had come to hand over some of his responsibilities to younger people.
However, he says it is not in his nature to take long rests, so he started looking for something different to do. He knew he wanted a new challenge and although he didn’t know much about New Zealand, he thought it had a lot of potential. So he moved here with his wife, Soon Ok, and sons Albin and Alfred, and eventually bought a 12 acre lifestyle block at Kumeu, near Auckland.
“When I first came to NZ, I looked to see what I could do. I wanted to be involved in a major industry in New Zealand, rather than running a shop or restaurant. In New Zealand the main industries are agriculture, horticulture or tourism. But sheep or dairy farming were too ‘normal’ for me.
“At the time, ostrich farmers were struggling, but I could see that ostrich meat was very good for your health. It has low cholesterol and fat, and high iron. I thought that in four or five years people would struggle to eat beef because of mad cow disease and foot and mouth disease. It takes three or four years to get production from ostriches, so we needed to make sure we were ready when the market improved.”
Hyo Sup says everybody told him ostrich farming was very risky, but that didn’t worry him. As he knew absolutely nothing about it he employed an ostrich industry expert, Susan Binks, to help him set up his farm at Galatea.
“People were very helpful and there are plenty of books and information on the Internet. We had to adapt that information to Galatea because the climate here is different. The first year was a struggle, but it is beautiful farming country here.
“It’s a shame that many New Zealand ostrich farmers have given up because they couldn’t sell the meat. Some of them tried to save money by using cheaper feed pellets, but you can’t get good meat or skins by feeding the birds pellets.
“The first thing I did was to build a feed mill so I could control the feed quality. I buy maize and soya meal, and I grow lucerne (alfalfa) so we can make lucerne hay. We mix it all together and feed it to the ostriches.”
Farming ostriches is very different from sheep or cattle. The birds are very sensitive and need good fences, so the whole farm had to be re-fenced in 1.8 metre high deer fences. Hyo Sup runs the breeding birds in groups of three – one rooster and two hens. However, the roosters will fight as they are territorial and want to protect their harem, so much of the 100 hectare farm had to be subdivided into one hectare paddocks to keep them apart.
The care of the birds doesn’t stop with separating the males. The eggs are collected daily from nests and placed in an incubator, where they stay for 42 days until they hatch. The young chicks are kept in sheds for two months, when they are old enough to go outside to be finished. The birds are slaughtered when they reach 100 kilogrammes, which normally takes less than 12 months.
Hyo Sup markets his own meat and leather in New Zealand and overseas.
“Everyone says that New Zealand is a small market, only four million people. I don’t agree. I tell them the market is 10 million. There are about 1.5 million people visiting New Zealand every year and they have more money than local people. So if you include tourists with New Zealand people the consumption in money is the same as 10 million people.
“We are building up the market in New Zealand and once we do, it will be very strong. You never know what will happen in the overseas market. If something happens that stops you exporting, you need a good local market.
“I don’t think there are many ostrich farmers selling like this. They put a lot of money into setting up their farms, but many of them gave up, which is a real shame. Many of them were more interested in the farming and hoped that someone else would sell the products for them, and that never happened.
“I have had to develop the markets myself. Last month I got a contract with a food company in Korea. They have huge franchise restaurants throughout Korea and they put my ostrich meat on the menu and called it ‘pure New Zealand ostrich steak’. That is very good for me.”
New Zealand restaurants are interested in putting the meat on the menu, but the demand is not high. However, Hyo Sup is confident that the markets he is developing will support his expansion plans.
“At the moment, I have a couple of thousand ostriches on the farm, but I want to increase that to ten thousand. I will need more land then, but I would approach other local people to farm ostriches on contract. I can farm about three thousand on this farm, and I want to have three to five thousand next year. Once I have five thousand ostriches I will need my own slaughter plant.”
In the meantime, Hyo Sup is expanding into tourism. He approached Korean tourism companies last year, and they started to bring tourists to his farm. Since November last year, four thousand tourists have visited Kadesh Ostrich Farm to buy ostrich leather products and eat the meat, which is prepared by a local restaurant.
“Most people are very impressed when they have ostrich meat. When they go back to Korea they will order it when they go to a restaurant. That is how I make my market!”
Hyo Sup’s success is hardly surprising, given his determination to make New Zealand his home. And he has advice for other migrants on how to learn to fit into New Zealand, based on his experiences.
“When we first came here, I couldn’t speak English, so I took a rest and played golf! Even though I couldn’t speak English, I wanted to do something with Kiwi people.
“There were no other Korean people in Kumeu, so we had no choice but to learn English. We also went to the Kumeu Baptist church.
“You have to make friends with Kiwis. People often give up, but they need to learn.
"New Zealand culture and get involved with New Zealand people, not just in business. Get involved with others. Go to the Kiwi church. Meet people, talk to them, introduce yourself. Kiwi people are busy, so migrants have to approach them."