In August, we brought the Bay of Plenty agritech community together for Agritech Unleashed in Tauranga. Founders, growers, tech companies, researchers, investors and industry leaders filled the room, and the region’s appetite to turn innovation into on-farm and commercial results was clear from the first session.
The programme was built to provoke, not reassure. Jarred Mair, Chief Insight Officer Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), opened on the global forces reshaping our farming systems. Steve Saunders of Yamaha Agriculture and Dr Sandhya Sriram of Sprout Agritech ran a master class in building partnerships at global scale. Workshops took the day from discussion into working material, exploring digital twins with Kar Mun Chooi of the Bioeconomy Science Institute, and the horticulture data ecosystem with Peter McHannigan and Kathryn Mountain of Rush Digital.
The day was long and the energy held, largely because people were willing to say difficult things in front of their peers. Growers have stopped funding unproven technology. Reliability and service now decide what gets bought. And much of what the room first described as a technology problem turned out to be a matching problem: people with a problem worth solving and people able to solve it, not finding each other early enough or on honest enough terms.
That is the argument for gathering in place. These events are not a showcase. They are where the sector tests its own assumptions in a room small enough that nobody can hide behind a slide, and where relationships form that carry the work forward long after the day ends. Read the full report here.
Next, we head south. Agritech Unleashed Otago in Dunedin on 12 November closes the 2026 series, with livestock and pastoral systems as the context. The questions are the same and the answers will not be. What does shared progress look like when the context is animals on the land, and how do genetics, data, observation and on-farm decisions move together rather than separately?
Kicking off with a networking event the evening before, we hope some of you can join us early. We look forward to seeing the ecosystem come together for our last event of the year. Building up to it, we are running a three-part international webinar series on pasture and rangeland systems with partners in Australia, Colorado and Wyoming… some global contexts to inspire local insights. More on that below.
New International Webinar Series: Global Innovation in Pasture and Rangeland Systems
AgriTech New Zealand is joining partners in Australia, Colorado and Wyoming for a three-part series on how innovation can strengthen pasture and rangeland systems.
Four regions, four sets of constraints, and a great deal of shared ground. Farmers, ranchers, agritech leaders, researchers, investors, and regional development organisations will talk practically about what is working and what is not: on-farm resilience, technology adoption/adaptation, investment, policy, and the partnerships needed to take promising ideas past the pilot stage.
The sessions are free and run from late September to late October. They also serve as deliberate preparation for Dunedin. The questions raised here about grazing systems, data, adoption, and ecosystem dynamics are the questions we will put on stage in November, with the benefit of an international read with near peers first.
Each webinar includes a live audience Q&A. When you register, you can submit a burning question on the challenges, innovations or collaboration opportunities shaping pasture and rangeland systems. Those questions will help guide the discussion and show us where stronger international connections and shared learning could lead to practical next steps. Saddle up, and plant your question!
evokeAG 2027: Register your interest
Australia is the natural next market for many New Zealand agritech companies, and evokeAG brings together the people who can help make that move happen: agribusiness leaders, government agencies, startups, researchers, producers and investors from across the Asia-Pacific.
It is also more than a market. Climate pressures and customers are shared across the region, and with neighbours like Singapore, the relationship runs deeper again: their food security needs and our innovation capability rely on each other. Add better capital flow across the region, and there is a strong case for developing a common position rather than each of us doing it alone.
As the region’s largest agrifood tech event, evokeAG brings together more than 1,500 people over two days. Joining the New Zealand delegation is a practical way to build the connections, visibility and local understanding needed to enter and grow in Australia.
Register your interest to join the New Zealand delegation (collaboratively convened by Sprout Agritech, National Fieldays Society and NZTE). Participants receive:
- A discounted international event ticket
- Coordinated support and warm introductions on the ground
- Connections to relevant government agencies
- Visibility through AgriFutures’ GrowAG platform before and after the event
Register your interest to be part of the delegation here.
Annual Meeting Recap: welcoming our new Executive Council
Thank you to everyone who joined our Annual Meeting on 13 August. Alongside the annual reflection and the financial report, members elected the incoming Executive Council. The council sets our direction and carries the membership’s voice, so it is worth introducing them properly.
Congratulations to Chelsea Hirst (NZ Product Accelerator) and Grant Kay (LIC), who join the Executive Council following the election. We again had a strong field across the categories this year and a properly contested vote… possibly a warm-up act for November! And a good problem for an industry body to have.
Our thanks to Tammy Lemire (Pamu) and Elliot Mercer (Agnition), who step down after generously giving their time, networks, and judgement. Both leave the organisation in better shape than they found it, and we look forward to staying connected.
The Executive Council for the year ahead:
- Major corporate: Grant Kay (LIC), Tui Williams (Fonterra)
- Other corporate: Chelsea Hirst, Deputy-Chair (NZ Product Accelerator), Tom Woutersen (Halter)
- Start-ups and SME: Brenna Townshend, Chair (Trev), Sophie Stanley (Levno)
- Government: Chris Kerr (MPI)
- Independent: Ruth Leary (AgriZero)
The categories matter here. Council members are elected to represent a part of the membership, not the interests of the organisation that employs them. A major corporate seat brings the perspective of every large agribusiness in our membership, and the start-up seats speak for the whole cohort of early-stage companies, not just their own. It is a real ask of people, and our council members take it seriously.
That is where our strength comes from. The work these eight do between meetings, and the breadth of the membership behind them, gives us standing when we speak on behalf of the sector. It only holds if members keep putting their hands up. Thank you for continuing to do so.
Member Spotlight: Macso celebrates 5 years
Congratulations to MACSO, which just celebrated its fifth birthday. Founded with a bold ambition to transform animal health through AI, MACSO is now moving from breakthrough technology to commercial deployment at global scale.
This milestone reflects the contribution of MACSO’s team, customers, partners, investors, advisers and supporters. As the company enters its next chapter, its progress is a strong example of New Zealand agritech translating ambitious innovation into international impact.
Movers & Shakers
There is a quiet signal in the sector right now that says a lot about where we have got to. Founders who have proven their product are bringing in senior operators to help them scale, and doing it early enough to matter.
At Bovonic, founder Liam Kampshof and his Board have appointed Chris Morgan as General Manager, bringing more than 40 years of experience in the New Zealand dairy industry to a company moving from proving its technology, to selling it at volume.
At Agovor, co-founders Richard Beaumont and Simon Carroll have Michael Riley in the CEO seat, a seasoned agtech operator with scaling and governance experience across Australia and New Zealand.
Different companies, different technologies, same instinct. The skills that get a product to market are not always the skills that scale a business, and both sets of founders have gone looking for people who have done it before. That’s a mark of both confidence and ambition.
It also says something about the sector’s pull. Experienced operators with options are choosing agritech, and choosing it here. Talent attracts talent, and each appointment makes the next one easier to land. Congratulations to Liam, Richard and Simon, and welcome to Chris and Michael.
Upcoming Events
22 Sep: World Agri-Tech Innovation Summit 2026
23 – 25 Sep: Emergent Leaders for Change Programme
28-29 Sep: Red Meat Sector Conference
29 Sep: International Webinar Series: Global Innovation in Pasture and Rangeland
8 Oct: KiwiNet Research Commercialisation Awards 2026
12 Nov: Agritech Unleashed Dunedin
If you have news to share or an opportunity to promote, please contact us and let’s keep building momentum together.
Ngā mihi nui
Brendan O’Connell
Chief Executive, AgriTechNZ