Mai Kai is very grateful to have the support of Chantal’s Shop in sourcing our organic fruit and vegetables. Chantal’s co-founder Peter Alexander has been working with organic producers from around the country for the last 40 years (so he knows most everybody) and he is working hard to keep whānau in Te Matau a Māui supplied with organic fruit and vegetables.

In the late seventies Peter Alexander and his wife Maureen Ward joined a whole food co-op, and in 1983 they took the plunge to establish an organic shop which they called Chantal’s. Over the next 35 years they grew Chantal’s into a national wholesale distribution business which included importing organic foods from around the world, a production and distribution warehouse that employed over 50 people, production of over 1000 food products under the Chantal Organics brand, and thriving organic market gardens.

In 2016 Peter and Maureen handed the shop onto his daughter Tess, and son-in-law Tim. Peter is still a daily figure in the store as he delivers produce from his son-in-law Ben’s organic garden Petit Jardin as well as fresh produce which he sources for us all from around the country.