All PFN ARTICLES

Three startups have been crowned winners of the inaugural Bezos Centre for Sustainable Protein @ NUS × Enterprise Singapore “Sustainable Protein Startup Competition” at the Asia‑Pacific Agri‑Food Innovation Summit 2025 in Singapore. Each of the winners, cultivated meat startup, Magic Valley from Melbourne , Fermeate a photomolecular fermentation startup based in California and Terra Bioindustries from Toronto, Canada and involved in up-cycling agro-industrial by-products, wil

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.

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.

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.

In the desert heat of the UAE, a vast new 4-million-litre precision fermentation facility will take shape and quietly, New Zealand’s Fonterra has a stake in the mix. Through its backing of Netherlands-based Vivici, Fonterra now sits within an Abu Dhabi partnership alongside The EVERY Company and the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO), marking one of the world’s largest industrial-scale fermentation projects designed for high-purity, Halal-compliant protein production.

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.

Kiwi, Leaft Foods has taken its green-tech know-how beyond the human plate and straight into the pet bowl. The Rolleston-based startup, best known for pioneering Rubisco extraction for human nutrition, has now applied its leaf-protein technology to create Alfalfa Protein Concentrate (APC), a nutrient-dense ingredient designed specifically for pet food.

..innovators Heliograf and Vert Design Studio have created the world’s first plastic-free, home-compostable soy sauce dropper, made entirely from renewable plant pulp. It breaks down in weeks, not centuries, leaving no microplastics behind. Holy Carp !! It's the new soy sauce fish.

Across Australia and New Zealand, the next wave of food innovation isn’t coming from flashy lab-grown meats or AI-driven drinks, it’s bubbling up from humble roots: garlic bulbs, chicory beans, and kiwifruit - a wellness boom.

Australians just delivered a reality check to big Soft Drink/Soda. Raw C coconut water sold over 500,000 one-litre bottles in a single week at Woolworths, marking the biggest week ever for coconut water and for the first time, it outsold 1.25-litre PET soft drinks on units. Baseline sales jumped nearly 40%, showing the switch to “healthier hydration” isn’t a fad; it’s the new fixture.