Waste Not, Want More as Kiwi Tech Turns Rotting Produce into Gold using Circular Bioprocessing

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You can keep your lab-grown steaks and imported onion powder. New Zealand just quietly dropped a food tech bombshell that could change the way we we grow, process and profit from food.

A world-first circular bioprocessing system developed by Powered by Plants (PbP) and backed by the New Zealand Food Innovation Network (NZFIN) is upcycling the ugly underbelly of our horticulture sector, think discarded onions, surplus carrots, bruised blueberries, into high-value powders, extracts, and concentrates for the food, nutraceutical, and supplement industries.

Source: PFN Ai Archives showing onion harvesting at Pukekohe, New Zealand

Not enough? The system also generates bioenergy, organic fertiliser and even high-protein insect meal. And it’s fully local, scalable and circular. Your compost bin just got outclassed.

“We’ve built a waste valorisation model that doesn’t just tick sustainability boxes, it redraws the entire box,” says PbP director Dr Andrew Prest. “Instead of landfilling or stock-feeding surplus produce at a loss, growers can now transform it into shelf-stable products with serious market value.”

And by serious, he means serious. The onion industry alone sends up to 20% of its 110,000-tonne annual yield to landfill, roughly $15 million in lost value. Meanwhile, New Zealand imports 1,100 tonnes of onion powder every year. Yes, really.

Prest says the pilot in Franklin has already proven the concept, with a goal to scale up to 8,000 tonnes annually, starting with spoke-and-hub processing facilities in Gisborne, Pukekohe and Hawke’s Bay. It’s not just about less waste, it’s about rewiring the horticulture model from commodity trap to value-added machine.

The AI-enhanced system sorts, scans, and processes everything from misshapen mushrooms to capsicum trimmings. Bio-stabilised outputs go to food and supplement producers. What’s left? Converted into biogas or fed to black soldier fly larvae to make protein meal. Then their waste gets blended into organic fertiliser. It’s a loop so tight, not even a peel goes astray.

NZFIN co-CEO Grant Verry calls it “the kind of smart food infrastructure that can make or break New Zealand’s agricultural future.”

“This is not just some greenwashed sideshow,” says Grant Verry. “It’s a scalable, IP-protected system that gives Kiwi growers leverage, adds export value, and reduces reliance on volatile imports. That’s called food system transformation.”

“Right now, growers are getting $20 a tonne for waste onions dumped on farms,” says Andrew Prest. “With our process, they can earn up to $3,000 a tonne. That delta alone can lift a whole community.”

Better wages, more secure jobs, new local industries. From food waste.

All that’s missing now is the funding. Powered by Plants is calling for seed investment to launch a commercial-scale run and build the first full facility. Andrew Prest says interest from food manufacturers is strong, nobody wants to be dependent on international supply chains anymore, especially not post-pandemic.

“This is the future of food,” says Andrew Prest. “Not just for New Zealand, but for Asia-Pacific and beyond. We can’t keep pretending our value lies in bulk exports of fresh produce. We need to own the next phase, processed, functional, and future-fit.”

And the best part? It’s not some far-off vision. It’s here, now, quietly turning food waste into food wealth.

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