All PFN ARTICLES

New Zealand’s fruit exports hit $5.68 billion in 2025, a record 42 percent increase on the previous year. Kiwifruit remained the standout performer, driving the total value of fresh and processed horticultural exports to $6.85 billion.

The idea of growing coffee indoors isn’t just a lab-curiosity anymore, it’s going commercial. Meet Big Guns Coffee, a U.S. veteran-and-daughter venture using hydroponics to grow coffee in a warehouse-style setup, controlling light, temperature, humidity and CO₂ to mimic the tropical highlands.

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.

From the molecular-kitchen of Vow comes a bold leap: their gourmet brand Forged is now making cultivated quail spread accessible to consumers. After securing regulatory approval from Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) for cultured Japanese quail cells, the company is dropping a small-batch smoked quail spread you can order online—Sydney launch only.

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.

Australian deep-tech player Nourish Ingredients has quietly shifted gears from startup to global operator, establishing a new commercial hub in Leiden, the Netherlands, the same energy-neutral “BioPartner 5” campus housing Europe’s biggest biotech disruptors. Best known for its Tastilux and Creamilux fats, precision-fermented lipids that mimic the sensory and aromatic profiles of animal fats, Nourish is now positioning itself at the centre of the EU food-innovation ecosyste

French cultivated-meat startup GOURMEY has just submitted the first cultivated-duck application to Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), marking the first cultured-meat filing since Vow’s local debut. The company’s cell cultivated duck biomass (Anas platyrhynchos domesticus) is designed for foie gras and pâté formulations with a 5–80 per cent inclusion rate.

When two corporate giants control 80% of New Zealand’s grocery market (Woolworths & Foodstuffs) , even carrots start looking like currency. Enter Good Groceries by Wonky, the cheeky, pragmatic new move from Wonky Box, already famous for rescuing “ugly” fruit and veg. Now they’re expanding into butcher-quality protein, refillable dry goods, and traceable staples, taking direct aim at the duopoly that’s left Kiwi shoppers paying some of the world’s highest grocery prices.

Japan’s obsession with perfect Wagyu is moving from pasture to petri dish. Organoid Farm, the Tokyo biotech now scaling Wagyu muscle cells to 200-litre bioreactors, has started supplying cultivated Wagyu beef cells to labs and foodtech partners across Japan. Their claim? A protein profile that sizzles, smells, and even flexes like the real thing.

After a quarter century of gruesome experimentation, New Zealand’s last genetically engineered - GE animal trials have come to an end. The Soil & Health Association and GE Free NZ say the closure of AgResearch’s Ruakura facility marks the end of an era defined by animal suffering, failed science, and ethical neglect. Their meta-report reveals that from 2000 to 2024, hundreds of cows, goats, and sheep were subjected to GE and gene-editing trials that produced no commercial ben

New Zealand has dropped $42 million into a brand-new Biodiscovery Platform, with the goal of turning native biodiversity into export-ready pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and functional foods. Announced by Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Dr Shane Reti, the seven-year investment will fund the newly formed Bioeconomy Science Institute, which aims to translate cutting-edge R&D into products that actually make it to market.

Australia’s food future just got a shot of adrenaline. Startupbootcamp Australia has unveiled its latest Cluster Connect accelerator cohort and the line-up reads like a bio-food dream list. Mushrooms, cultivated meat, seaweed biotech, native plant supplements, all under the eye of the federal Department of Industry, Science and Resources. It’s no longer just drones and packaging with the focus shifting squarely into biomanufacturing for food.