A new Government-backed export initiative with Canada will accelerate the commercialisation of New Zealand’s food innovations to meet global demand.
The move will provide Kiwi businesses access to emerging technologies, market intelligence, and research and development support through the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN).
Following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with its local counterpart, the New Zealand Food Innovation Network (NZFIN), the CFIN will be able to reach Canada’s 40 million consumers.
The collaboration aimed to promote the global exchange of food manufacturing knowledge and opportunities, accelerate domestic and export growth in both countries' food sectors, and drive the adoption of transformative technologies worldwide.
The connection between New Zealand and Canada food innovators will also help companies commercialise new products, food tech solutions, and intellectual property more effectively and efficiently.
The agreement with Canada followed New Zealand’s entry into the Asia-Pacific Food Innovation Network, which was designed to support food security, nutrition, innovation, and economic growth in the ASEAN Region.
Agriculture is New Zealand’s largest export industry, accounting for almost half of all goods and services sold offshore. Data has shown that the country has spent more than half a billion dollars yearly on agri-food research and relied on developing innovations to create new value-added products for export markets.
Under a separate new initiative launched by NZFIN, New Zealand’s science, innovation and technology system, as well as economic development agencies and industry, will be purposefully linked to ensure the output of research is commercialised to meet global market demand and drive the commercialisation of innovation developed by food scientists in partnership with industry.
The new catalyst model has been designed to create an international ecosystem integrating food innovation facilities in Auckland, Waikato, Otago, Palmerston North, and Canterbury, as well as universities' applied innovation facilities in Australia, Singapore, and Indonesia, supporting ideation, prototype development, pilot-scale trials and production through to market launch and export expansion.
The networked facilities will allow businesses looking to develop value-added foods, food technologies, and food production systems to access expertise from a global network of food scientists, food process engineers, and millions of dollars worth of specialised technologies, research, and manufacturing equipment.
The establishment of the international programme followed the government's call to double the value of New Zealand's food exports by 2030. The latest forecasts showed that the country’s food and fibre exports would reach NZD 56.9 billion by mid-2025.
The industry-first initiative has been designed to reduce businesses' barriers in scaling their production volumes to export levels. It will create a defined pathway from conceptual research to export and an ecosystem of scientific research partners, manufacturers and business advisors.
Grant Verry, NZFIN Co-CEO, said entrepreneurs face numerous challenges in commercialising research outputs. Only a tiny proportion of innovations become export success stories.
“The expansion of our network into Canada and our Asia-Pacific network partnership is designed to provide Kiwi businesses with new technologies and much larger pools of capital, expertise and value-added food manufacturing options to enable growth,” said Verry.
“Food and beverage firms can now come to us with an idea and outcome, and we will guide them through the fastest way to commercialise that to export. We are unlocking market access through a unified system by extending support for New Zealand food innovation beyond territorial and regulatory boundaries.”
This innovation ecosystem, replicated across the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, ensured that businesses could seamlessly scale and compete globally with the same level of support and expertise they can receive through our domestic programme.
Verry added that NZFIN was established in 2011 to enable Kiwi food and beverage businesses to develop and commercialise innovative value-added products to meet global demand and generate economic growth.
