In this video conference, Stephen Tauwhare discusses some of the industries interested in harakeke as a raw material.
Transcript
Te Kura Kaupapa Ruamatā: Atu i te gel kaupapa, he aha ētahi atu kaupapa kua rangahau koe i runga i te harekeke?
Wiremu: Apart from the gel, what other products have come from the harakeke?
Stephen Tauwhare (Industrial Research Limited The major driving force for the creation of the Harakeke Project was to do with the textile industry. Different varieties of harakeke have different fibre properties. Part of the work I did was extracting fibre and examining what the differences were between different varieties in terms of the muka properties of the fibre ... So that they can be used in modern times for new uses in terms of textiles and bio-composite materials which, I guess the simplest way would be to say it, is a plastic embedded with natural fibres.
