What’s next for agritech starts in our regions
What’s next for agritech starts in our regions
Last week’s Life Sciences Summit 2026 reinforced a message we’re hearing across the ecosystem: New Zealand’s agritech future will be shaped not by isolated innovation, but by connection, execution and systems‑level thinking.
Insights from across human health, biosecurity, advanced manufacturing and AI echoed challenges familiar to agritech: fragmented data (worth noting some signals of change on this are happening in the dairy sector), the gap between innovation and scale, and the need to design for global markets. A strong theme emerged around lived experience: the value of practical insight, trusted relationships and people who know what it really takes to move from promise to impact. Read the highlights here.
This thinking sits at the heart of what we’re building next: connecting the people, places and practices shaping Aotearoa’s agritech future. Through Agritech Unleashed 2026, we’re turning local insight into wider impact, surfacing lived experience in each region and connecting those insights into shared national priorities and global opportunity.
Join this year’s Agritech Unleashed experiences in:
Auckland – Thursday 16 April
Old Government House, University of Auckland
Register
Tauranga – Tuesday 25 August
University of Waikato, Tauranga Campus
Register
Dunedin – Thursday 12 November
Otago Business School, University of Otago
Register
If you have news to share or an opportunity to promote, please contact us and let’s keep building momentum together.