New Zealand & Canada boost food innovation partnership

A new international export initiative between New Zealand and Canada aims to accelerate the commercialisation of Kiwi food innovations to meet increasing global demand.

The partnership involves a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed by the New Zealand Food Innovation Network (NZFIN) with the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN). This move will provide New Zealand businesses with access to a wide array of resources including emerging technologies, market intelligence, and research and development support intended for Canadian markets.

The collaboration seeks to promote a global exchange of knowledge pertaining to food manufacturing. These efforts are designed to facilitate growth in both countries' food sectors and to advance the global adoption of transformative food technologies. It will specifically aid companies in commercialising new products, food technology solutions, and intellectual property more effectively.

This agreement with Canada follows New Zealand's involvement in the Asia-Pacific Food Innovation Network. This network, established in 2024, is a government partnership involving Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. The aim is to bolster food security, nutrition, innovation, and economic growth in the ASEAN region.

Agriculture remains New Zealand's largest export industry, accounting for nearly half of all exported goods and services. The nation invests more than half a billion dollars each year into agri-food research and innovation aimed at creating additional value-added products for its export markets.

Separate from this initiative, NZFIN has launched another programme designed to align nationwide facilities, international partners, and the country's existing science and innovation systems to enable the commercialisation of research outputs to satisfy global market demands. This is part of New Zealand's strategic goal to double food export value by 2030.

The newly introduced Catalyst model intends to foster an international ecosystem by integrating food innovation facilities across Auckland, Waikato, Otago, Palmerston North, and Canterbury. It will also collaborate with universities and innovation centres in Australia, Singapore, and Indonesia. This extensive network will aid in ideation, prototype development, pilot-scale trial, production, market launch, and export expansion.

The comprehensive facilities within this network will be available for businesses seeking to develop value-added foods, technologies, and production systems. These enterprises will benefit from a global network of food scientists and engineers, as well as significant investments in specialised technologies and research equipment.

Underlining New Zealand's ambitious goals, forecasts predict the country's food and fibre exports will reach USD $56.9 billion by mid-2025.

The new initiative aims to alleviate the challenges faced by businesses in scaling production to export levels. It establishes a clear path from research to export, supported by a network of scientific research partners, manufacturers, and business advisors.

Grant Verry, Co-CEO of NZFIN, highlights the challenges entrepreneurs face when attempting to commercialise research outputs, noting that only a small fraction achieve export success. "The expansion of our network into Canada and our Asia-Pacific network partnership is designed to provide Kiwi businesses with new technologies as well as much larger pools of capital, expertise and value-added food manufacturing options to enable growth."

"Food and beverage firms are now able to come to us with an idea and outcome and we will guide them through the fastest way to commercialise that to export," he added. Verry emphasized that expanding support beyond local and regulatory confines unlocks market access through a unified system.

Verry also mentioned that NZFIN was founded in 2011 to assist New Zealand food and beverage enterprises in developing and commercialising innovative products to satisfy worldwide demand, thus facilitating economic growth.