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The latest edition of the Vegan Pie Awards in New Zealand highlights how the plant-based category is evolving from replication to innovation. The supreme pie, a nacho pie creation from Richoux Patisserie, won over judges with its bold flavour and textural layering. This signals clearly vegan baking isn’t simply about dairy/meat substitutions any more, it’s about re-imagining standards in flavour, format and occasion.

New Zealand's Zealong Tea Estate at Gordonton, in the Waikato, joins the ranks of the world’s most iconic tea destinations, positioning New Zealand’s agrifood landscape firmly in the premium global beverage narrative.

New Zealand’s horticulture engine fired on all cylinders this year, with fruit exports surging 42 percent to $5.68 billion. Kiwifruit led the charge, up 45 percent on 2024, as global demand for gold varieties strengthened. The overall produce export value of $6.85 billion confirms the sector’s strong recovery trajectory and alignment with national export-growth objectives.

A 75–100 g daily uplift in fruit and veggies intake across Australia and New Zealand could reshape both public health and the food economy. It equates to roughly 1.2 million tonnes of extra produce flowing through ANZ supply chains and a measurable reduction in healthcare costs. The policy and industry alignment exists, but what’s needed now is a consumer pull signal powered by better products, stronger marketing, and easier access.

The Ferrero Chilean expansion (backed by its agricultural subsidiary Agrichile) strengthens year-round hazelnut flow into its confectionery plants and secures traceable, high-oleic nuts certified to Ferrero’s “Horizon” sustainability standards. Chile’s Mediterranean-style climate mirrors parts of Victoria, Australia and Canterbury, New Zealand, making this development a potential template for ANZ diversification into premium nut crops.

A new “functional-natural” wellness boom is gaining momentum under the radar of the alt-protein noise. Instead of mimicking meat, these brands are harnessing fermentation, plant prebiotics, and caffeine-free stimulation to feed both body and brain. The mood-regulating and gut-nourishing niches are rapidly converging, led by small-scale producers leveraging native and regenerative agriculture.

New Zealand’s berry sector just levelled up. The Fresh Berry Company, backed by Driscoll’s, is introducing the Eterna, the world’s largest blueberry variety, into local production. The fruit, weighing up to 20.4 grams, will be grown under plastic tunnel houses in Kerikeri, Waikato, and soon Nelson, signalling a clear shift toward premiumisation and export-ready novelty crops.

A New Zealand-born nutrient extraction platform is modernising the world’s US$60 billion Traditional Chinese Medicine industry by replacing ancient decoction methods with low-temperature, low-pressure precision extraction.

France’s GOURMEY has taken a decisive regulatory leap by filing Application A1341 with FSANZ for its cell cultivated duck biomass. The regulator’s choice to assess it via the General (Level 5) route, rather than the lengthy Major Procedure, compresses approval to roughly 10 months and requires only one round of consultation. That’s the clearest signal yet that FSANZ sees cultivated meat as a manageable food-safety challenge, not an existential threat.

NZ Food Awards 2025 - The Supreme Award win for Fonterra’s Easy Bakery Cream showcases NZ’s world-class dairy R&D — but also exposes the system’s export bias. A product Kiwis can’t buy wins top honours while non-animal innovators like Otis, Elta Ego, and Giesen redefine the meaning of “creaminess” at home. Add the sale of Anchor to Lactalis, and the scene looks more Paris than Palmerston North.

Public consultation on the NZ Animal Welfare (Management of Pigs) Amendment Bill has reignited debate over breeding sows farrowing crates, with the SPCA NZ and Vegan Society NZ urging submissions before 23 October. The Bill proposes extending crate use until 2035 and sanctioning “temporary” confinement indefinitely, despite the 2020 High Court ruling deeming the practice unlawful let alone cruel.

The Wonky Box expansion into meat and pantry lines signals a decisive move from niche produce-rescue to full-service grocery disruptor seen as a grassroots response to years of supermarket price-gouging and opaque sourcing.

AgriSea’s NanoSea debut is more than a lab win, it’s a proof-of-concept for blue-biomanufacturing at commercial scale. By moving seaweed nanocellulose from R&D into real-world production, it demonstrates how local bio-processing can turn coastal biomass into export-ready, climate-positive ingredients. The signal here is unmistakable - the bioeconomy’s next competitive frontier lies in ocean-grown feedstocks, modular, renewable, and market-hungry.

Wai Mānuka has released it's latest sparkling format building on the momentum of functional sodas combining authenticity, wellness, and export appeal. The brand leans into mānuka honey’s reputation for purity and healing, pairing it with sleek Māori-inspired packaging signaling premium provenance to global audiences.

The GE Animals Report from GE Free NZ provides a devastating forensic account of gene-edited - GE animal experimentation at AgResearch’s Ruakura campus from 2015 to 2024. Across cattle, goats, and sheep, no experiment produced viable results. Instead, there were near-total mortality rates, chronic disease, and repeated ethical breaches, including non-compliance with EPA approvals. All GE lines were terminated by 2024.

The New Zealand Government’s $42 million Biodiscovery Platform signals a serious shift toward science-led economic development. Led by the Bioeconomy Science Institute, it aims to commercialise natural pharmaceuticals, functional foods, and bio-based materials drawn from New Zealand’s unique flora and fauna. The initiative reflects a strategic pivot from primary production to bio-innovation, backed by long-term R&D funding and partnerships between government, Māori enterprise

The NZ Restaurant Association’s national survey reveals a consumer dining market reset after years of economic tightness and pandemic-era digitisation. Kiwis are trading frequency for quality, dining out less often but expecting flawless food and service every time. Technology’s utility is bounded by context, embraced for transactions, rejected for table-side interaction. The data reveals a hybrid consumer psychology - digitally literate but emotionally hungry.

Pasture grown crops like Barley, Rye Grass and Alfalfa are converging as unlikely pillars of the next dairy-alt wave. One provides creaminess and fibre, the others deliver a complete amino acid profile. Together, they could reshape how New Zealand leverages land, science, and food tech to remain relevant in a market demanding both functionality and flavour.

New Zealand's Brain Health company, Arepa has shifted its functional focus from chilled liquid formats to shelf-stable brain x gut powder, unlocking scalability, global freight viability, and crossover into wellness aisles. With gut-brain connection now firmly in mainstream conversation, this move allows for dual-market capture with mental performance + digestive health.

With canning demand collapsing, New Zealand peaches risk becoming stranded assets. But by diverting even a slice of the crop into dried slices and powders, growers can flip waste into premium formats. Typical yields run ~129 kg soft-dried and ~113 kg powder per tonne of fresh fruit, commanding global prices of USD 9–22/kg and USD 10–30/kg respectively. Under a cooperative brand like concept OroGold Farms,