All PFN ARTICLES

Wattie’s Heinz may be walking away from New Zealand peaches, Hawke’s Bay peaches, but growers don’t have to.

New Zealand’s vertical farm outfit 26 Seasons just inked a deal with Saudi Arabia’s Qassim Strawberry & Fruit Cooperative Society, swapping know-how and strawberries in equal measure. It’s not just about berries – it’s a signal that New Zealand’s premium food tech is sliding quietly into the Gulf’s Vision 2030 supermarket basket.

Half a century on, Sydney, Australia's Flemington Markets are still the beating heart of fruit, veg, and flowers for NSW and the ACT. What began in 1975 with nervous tenants staring at empty stalls has become a 2.5 million-tonne food distribution powerhouse servicing millions across metropolitan Australia.

Italy’s Gruppo Tonazzo, after 136 years in meat, has gone all-in on plants. The family company closed its butchery operations at the end of 2024 and handed the reins to its Kioene plant-based brand, which has been around since the late 1980s. What was once a sideline has now become the centrepiece with attractive packs of mini burgers made from pumpkin, carrots, eggplant, spinach and kale are carried in Carrefour Italy and millions of households nationwide.

New Zealand’s green-leaf disruptor, Leaft Foods, is stepping firmly into Asia with a strategic partnership alongside Tokyo-based Lacto Japan. At the heart of this move is Rubisco Protein Isolate, a leaf-derived protein boasting an amino acid profile superior to dairy whey, coupled with the functionality to replace eggs, emulsifiers, and synthetic binders in everyday foods.

Cacao and coffee, two of the planet’s most loved crops, are buckling under pressure. Cocoa prices have smashed past $10,000 a tonne, while weather stress is pushing Arabica uphill. Enter the bean-free brigade: innovators who promise the same taste experience, minus the deforestation, price shocks, and labour exploitation.

South Australia has just made sushi history and not for what’s on the plate. As of now, those tiny plastic soy sauce fish, the ones that spill sticky umami soy sauce over every food court bento, are officially banned across the state. It’s a world first, and the move affects more than 1.8 million people.

The verdict - those who ate the most butter faced a 15% higher risk of dying, while those reaching for plant-oils like olive, canola, or soy oils enjoyed a 16% lower risk. So simply swapping one tablespoon of butter for plant-based oils a day cut overall and cancer-related mortality by 17%.

Seaweed has always been there at the edge of the tide - useful, humble, occasionally headline-grabbing, but next month in Nelson it gets its moment in the boardroom. The 2025 Seaweed Summit brings together industry innovators, science leaders, Māori enterprise, and even a Government Minister, signalling that this is no longer just a niche curiosity but a sector on the brink of being noticed.

Alastair Hawken, founder of Hawkens Gingerbread in Grantham, has pioneered the UK’s first commercial grown ginger cultivation using hydroponic polytunnels. Inspired during Nottingham Trent University’s Help to Grow: Management Course, Alastair conceived a soil‑free flood‑and‑drain system to enable ginger production under controlled tropical conditions (25–30 °C and ~85% humidity), countering the UK's unsuitable climate for the crop

In a bold move worthy of a chef’s kiss, Kiwi-based, MG Group is putting its weight and five hectares of glasshouse real estate behind the humble yet heroic tomato. Up in Warkworth, North of Auckland, the co-op’s sprawling SPL site, best known for pumping out capsicums by the crate-load, is about to get a makeover. And not just any makeover, think of it as a long-term love letter to local tomato lovers, with seedlings expected in the soil before the end of the year.

In a move that can only be described as a collective political faceplant, the food ministers of Australia’s eight states , along with New Ze