All PFN ARTICLES

A nacho pie has just taken out New Zealand’s top vegan baking honour and honestly, could anything scream 2025 more? Richoux Patisserie’s Supreme-winning “Nacho Pie” blended Mexican spice, crunch, and creamy plant-based comfort into a mash-up that feels perfectly tuned to the times: bold, global, and comfort-driven. Judges called it “flavour-packed” and “innovative”, which is code for this one actually made us smile.

UK-based One Planet Pizza just did what many ANZ plant-based brands haven’t yet dared: they launched into Southeast Asia, starting with 60 Tops stores in Thailand. The country’s plant-based food market is already worth over £1 billion, and with more than 75 percent of the population lactose intolerant, this move feels almost surgically smart.

America’s appetite for white mushrooms is going through a full-blown functional food awakening. The market is forecast to surge from US$13.3 billion in 2024 to US$22.34 billion by 2033, a nearly 6% annual increase driven by wellness-minded consumers seeking nutrient-dense, plant-forward foods doing more than fill a plate.

New Zealand’s only commercial tea plantation based in the Waikato, Zealong Tea Estate, has steeped itself into global recognition, literally, after being listed among the world’s best tea houses in “150 Tea Houses You Need to Visit Before You Die” by Lannoo Publishing.

Chocolate giant Barry Callebaut is hedging its bets, keeping cocoa close while diving headfirst into the cocoa-free future. The Swiss heavyweight has entered a long-term partnership with Planet A Foods, the German start-up behind ChoViva, a chocolate alternative made from local crops like sunflower seeds. The deal neatly straddles both camps: traditional cocoa dominance and the growing demand for sustainable, non-cocoa chocolate.

Singapore has formally shifted to a hybrid food resilience model, blending local production with trusted imports as it pushes back its “30 by 30” target to 2035. The new plan sets 20 percent local supply for fibre (leafy greens, mushrooms, beansprouts) and 30 percent for protein (seafood, eggs), down from the once-ambitious goal to produce 30 percent of all nutritional needs by 2030. The revision reflects hard realities: limited agricultural land, high energy and labour costs

Japanese food-tech outfit Sankyo Foods is launching a microwavable “GABA-Rice” range under its retail arm Food Base, tapping into the rising wave of mental-wellness functional foods. Each serving contains around 100 mg of the neurotransmitter-precursor GABA via germinated brown rice blends enriched with traditional Japanese grains and beans, comfortingly familiar rice with added wellness appeal.

In a world of weather shocks and geopolitical tension, Cellular Agriculture Australia has thrown down the gauntlet — food isn’t just sustenance, it’s national security. Their new white paper “Made & Grown: The Future of Food Biotechnology & Biomanufacturing in Australia” argues that investing in biomanufacturing is no longer optional; it’s a sovereign imperative.

If every Aussie and Kiwi ate just one extra 100 g serve of fruit and veggies a day, the ripple would be enormous. AUSVEG says, an extra handful translates to almost a million tonnes of produce, $3.3 billion in added value to the vegetable supply chain, 13,000 new jobs, and $1.4 billion in healthcare savings by 2030. In New Zealand, similar modelling suggests NZ$838 million in lifetime health savings and 94,000 healthy life years gained from just a modest daily veg boost.

Global food manufacturers and retailers are leaving money on the table in plant-based proteins, slowing category growth and exposing supply chains to avoidable risk, according to a new investor-backed analysis. The report finds most big players still treat plant-based as a side aisle, not a profit engine, which weakens resilience by over-relying on animal protein.

Ferrero is quietly reshaping the global nut map. The Italian confectionery giant, famous for Nutella and Kinder, has been planting thousands of hectares of hazelnut orchards across Chile’s Maule and Ñuble regions to guarantee supply for its spreads and chocolates. The South American orchards now complement Ferrero’s holdings in Italy, Turkey and the U.S., offering counter-seasonal harvests and greater climate security.

China’s next Five-Year Plan is shaping up less like an agricultural roadmap and more like a national tech manifesto and foodtech is suddenly in the mix. Beijing’s leadership has tied biomanufacturing to its industrial self-reliance strategy, signalling proteins, enzymes, and precision-fermented ingredients now belong alongside semiconductors and EV batteries in the country’s quest for technological sovereignty.