Cedenco Foods New Zealand Ltd - Mahora

Our History

Hunter Witters was a grower of sweetcorn from the late 1940s, and a key influencer behind the establishment of J Wattie’s Canneries in Gisborne. He was one of the first growers to supply the new Wattie’s factory, which opened on February 2 1952. Hunter passed his operation down to his sons Cedric and Dean Witters who brought what was innovation at the time to the industry with improvements such as leasing instead of buying land and introducing single cell transplants. In 1976 after organising a grower’s tour of the USA, they imported their first machine harvester.

Already a successful tomato grower, the Witters brothers began leasing land and expanding their tomato growing enterprise. 

In 1985 they formed Cedenco — an amalgamation of the names Cedric and Dean — Dean had studied horticulture at Massey University and organised the first huge field operation. Cedric, a commerce graduate, focused on building the factory from scratch in the industrial subdivision. The tomato paste and puree factory was commissioned in January 1986. Tomato paste production grew to 14,000 tonnes within 10 years and Cedenco later expanded into bulk diced tomatoes, apple and kiwifruit paste, kiwifruit and sweetcorn and pumpkin powder with it’s drum dried powder plant.

A consortium of local businessmen bought Cedenco in 1991 and in late 1993 listed on the stock exchange. An “idea-a-minute “ man, Dean thrived on the adrenaline of the growing business as it forged into Asia, Middle East, China and Australia.  His drive and passion spread to the team and in 1992 they won a TradeNZ/ Air NZ Governor General’s Export Award for Exporter of the Year. In 1994, Dean won a Massey University Sir Geoffrey Peren Distinguished Alumni Award for innovation in horticultural production and export, and outstanding contribution to the East Coast region.

In 2001 Cedenco expanded into frozen vegetable processing with the purchase of freezing equipment for the production of Frozen Peas, Corn and Pumpkin.

From 2000, performance at Cedenco improved dramatically and in May 2001 it was bought by American food processor SK Foods and Dean stood down as Managing Director. 

In 2010, ownership changed to Imanaka holdings Ltd. a Japanese Food Ingredients trading company.

In 2017 Cedenco expanded its operations with the acquisition of apple processor ENZA Foods as well as establishing dairy and seafood operations though Cedenco Dairy and Cedenco Aquaculture.

In 2018, Cedenco was again recognised for it’s contribution to exports winning the ExportNZ Exporter of the year for the Hawkes Bay region as well as being a finalist in the New Zealand International business awards.