Five Foods Australia and New Zealand Could Create for China’s Next Decade

PFN View | Scott Mathias

A recent social post from my friend Iain Langridge of In2AsiaExport got me thinking about what Australia and New Zealand could put on China’s tables over the next decade. His observation is fairly blunt - the China that once rewarded an imported product simply for being foreign and premium has moved on. Consumers want quality, value, convenience and a compelling reason to buy.

The numbers support his view. Bain and Worldpanel report China’s urban fast-moving consumer goods spending grew just 0.9% in 2025, despite volumes rising 3.6%. Average prices fell 2.6%. People are still shopping, but making each purchase work harder.

So I asked a slightly adventurous question and this is: what could ANZ develop between now and 2036 that earns a place in a Chinese shopping basket?

These five foods as concepts are speculative, but each has roots in science or products already emerging here.

A daily kiwifruit spoon. New Zealand’s familiar fruit becomes a portable sachet of concentrated kiwifruit and selected fibres, squeezed onto breakfast or eaten straight from the pack. There is already serious science behind the digestive-health opportunity. Following Zespri’s research and application, the European Commission authorised a claim that consuming two fresh green Hayward kiwifruit daily, providing at least 200g of flesh, supports normal bowel function by increasing stool frequency. A sachet would need evidence for its own formulation, but affordable weekly boxes could bring a useful daily habit to a wider audience.

Roast-duck flavour without the duck. Tiny pearls of fermentation-derived fat and savoury flavour, melting into mushroom dumplings, noodles or hotpot. A little ingredient doing a big job. Australia’s Nourish Ingredients already has a fermentation-fat partnership with China’s CABIO; the next creative step could be a cooking product developed around Chinese tastes. The appeal would come down to the aroma, richness and pleasure it brings to dinner.

Breakfast protein from beneath our feet. An instant congee cup blending grains and mushrooms with microbial protein produced using captured geothermal gases. New Zealand’s Upflow is developing protein-rich biomass, initially for feed, with human nutrition among its potential applications. A breakfast cup remains a longer-term proposition, dependent on safety, approvals, shelf stability, flavour and economics. But turning a geothermal resource into an everyday meal is a food story with some substance.

A better breakfast as we age. A warm black-sesame, oat and legume cream, delivering useful protein in a smaller portion. Easy to open, easy to prepare and enjoyable enough to become a routine. New Zealand’s The Pure Food Co already brings this nutritional thinking into aged care, including protein-rich, texture-modified breakfasts. The next opportunity could be adapting that expertise for older people shopping and cooking for themselves, with Chinese partners shaping flavour and price. Good nutrition should have a place at our breakfast table long before we enter residential care.

Fruit jewels grown beyond the orchard. Intensely flavoured fruit pearls in lightly sweetened tea jelly, perhaps feijoa–jasmine or berry–oolong. A small indulgence with a distinctive taste. Forever Harvest, based in Lincoln near Christchurch, is already developing fruit and nut ingredients from plant cells, fruit and nuts without the tree. Its work gives this idea a tangible New Zealand starting point. The dessert pearls are our imagined application; the company’s focus is developing customised ingredients with food and flavour partners. Over the next decade, those ingredients could give ANZ an entirely new palette of tastes to work with.

What connects these ideas is the amount of thought inside each mouthful. A useful serving. A flavour worth returning to. A small pleasure people can afford. The technology helps make the product possible; the consumer decides whether it deserves to stay.

Iain’s post also suggests Australia and New Zealand need to get closer to the people eating its products. Some of these foods could be developed in local labs and finished in China, combining ingredients and know-how with local culinary expertise and manufacturing.

Provenance would still matter, but it would have a practical job to do.

I’d loosely call this genre “purposeful pleasure”: everyday foods bringing useful nutrition, convenience or distinctive flavour, with enjoyment built in.

Could “purposeful pleasure” become Australia and New Zealand’s next food export signature?

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