Future of Food · Issue 05 · February 2025

The breakthrough

Can New Zealand become a powerhouse of food innovation?

We were once called a petri dish of possibility. Doubling export value means getting that imagination back.

If food and fibre are to carry their share of doubling export value, business as usual will not get us there. Growing volume by more than 60 percent is not realistic within our environmental limits, and productivity growth has flattened since its peak in the 1980s. So the answer has to be innovation: more value from what we already do, and new categories that do not exist yet.

We have real form here, from refrigeration to ryegrass genetics to the reinvention of kiwifruit. But our innovation system is fragmented, our talent base is thinning and we have not been good at commercialising new categories at scale. This issue makes the case for a connected national innovation framework that brings research, science and commercialisation together, backed by government and industry.

What the issue covers

  • A goal is not a strategy. Doubling exports needs a different formula, not more of the same.
  • A volatile world means past growth paths are no longer a reliable guide.
  • Successes in fruit, dairy, wine, fish and meat show the way, but adoption and scale-up need to speed up.
  • Founders who have reached around $5 million in revenue are ready to go global and need the next level of capital.

A question to take to your next board or leadership meeting

Where in your organisation does a good idea go to get funded, and how long does it wait?

Work through it with me
Written by
Vincent Heeringa and Dr Victoria Hatton
With contributions from
  • Nicola O'Rourke, Founders Advisory
  • Dale Bowie, formerly of Wellington's Development Kitchen
  • Professor Alan Renwick, Lincoln University
  • Dr Olivia Ogilvie, Opo Bio
  • Grant Verry and John Morgan, New Zealand Food Innovation Network
  • Grant Caunter, State of Play Brewery

The Future of Food series was originally published by FoodHQ Innovation Limited between 2024 and 2026, while I was Chief Executive. Each issue is reproduced here in full, with thanks to my co-authors, the contributors and FoodHQ's partners.