All PFN ARTICLES

New Zealand powerhouse brand, Zespri has just clocked over NZ$5 billion in global kiwifruit sales for the 2024/25 season, sending 220.9 million trays into markets from Seoul to Seattle. Growers are banking record returns, shareholders are celebrating, and the marketing team can finally tick off that 10-year sales target set back in 2015.

Confession time - this writer is a full-blown plant-based pie tragic. My kryptonite? A properly spicy vegan butter chicken pie from the BP servo and with a flaky crust and just enough ooze to stain my polo. So when news dropped UK vegan pie hustlers Magpye had released a Roast Chick’n Dinner Pie, I knew we were witnessing something sacred.

Greek yogurt giant Chobani has just acquired plant-based meal delivery brand Daily Harvest in a move that’s less about dairy and more about daypart domination. Industry whispers put the deal at around USD $600 million, a figure showing Chobani is serious about owning more than just your morning yogurt ritual.

Germany’s Veganz has signed a deal with Illinois-based Jindilli Beverages, the people behind milkadamia, to bring its proprietary Mililk system to North America and the Australia–New Zealand (ANZ) region. That’s right, concentrated plant milk is getting its moment, and the duopoly of almond and oat might be about to get shaken, not stirred.

The UK just hit launch on one of the boldest moves in plant-based yet - Meat-Free Made Easy. With over 40 brands on board, from Beyond Meat to Compass Group, the campaign aims to shift everyday eating habits through simple swaps, practical messaging, and collective muscle. Now, Australia and New Zealand might be next.

Earlier this year, a Dubai chocolate sensation stuffed with pistachio, yes, that one, shot to fame on social media. Creamy, crunchy, and algorithmically perfect, Fix Dessert Chocolatier’s “Can’t Get Knafeh of It” racked up over tens of thousands TikTok views, inspired zillions of remakes, and turned pistachio-laced indulgence into a global craving.

New Zealand’s next-gen meat future just scored a power-up and this time, it’s women calling the shots. Auckland-based biotech startup Opo Bio, founded by Forbes 30 Under 30 2024 honouree Olivia Ogilvie and University of Auckland scientist Laura Domigan, has secured funding from Epic Angels, Asia Pacific’s largest female-only angel investor collective.

A quick dash through Tesco’s UK's fresh aisle right now delivers more than the usual packet of spinach, it offered a glimpse of the supermarket’s newest weapon in the plant-based convenience war. Enter root & soul, a strikingly curated, own-brand range of prepped veg, tempura’d carrots, and grainy goodness aimed directly at Britain’s growing cohort of flexitarians.

The Forbes Asia 30 Under-30s list just dropped, and guess what? The future of food, fibre, and function has a Southern Hemisphere accent. New Zealand and Australia aren’t just keeping up, they’re quietly producing some of the most exciting young founders on the planet. Not influencers. Not crypto bros. Actual scientists. Actual biotech founders. Actual climate-smart inventors.

Enter Shake Your Plants - SYP, the surprisingly cool plant-based drink powder brand turning hydration into a functional, flavourful ritual. Started by two fed-up friends in Dubai, SYP is what happens when kombucha, herbal know-how, and next-gen sustainability have a very dry, very hot baby.

Here’s a sentence we haven’t said in years: New Zealand just made a smart, future-focused science move. And it could actually pay off with huge bioeconomy returns.

It’s the kind of supermarket sighting that should spark chaos in the vegan snack aisles. A plant-based Nutella? With oat and almond milk instead of dairy? Surely that’s the moment the palm-oily, sugar-slicked classic finally catches up to the alt-dairy revolution. Right?