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The delegation will join an internationally subscribed agritech immersion programme and visit large US growers and producers, connect with local trends, while scoping investment and export opportunities. Led by Callaghan Innovation and Agritech New Zealand, the group includes a diverse talent pool of early and late stage agritech businesses as well as researchers and innovation leaders.

The global agriculture industry has been slow in its uptake of technology, but this is changing as it looks to innovate and solve significant problems. These include rising labour shortages, environmental pressures, more adverse weather events, and feeding a global 10 billion population by 2050.

Callaghan Innovation’s Nicky Molloy says New Zealand has an incredible recipe to help solve these problems. “Our genuine relationships with farmers and growers, our kaitiakitanga (care for the environment), our natural innovation flair, and our strong national integrity measures are a unique value proposition,” says Nicky, an agritech innovation expert.

“Feedback from Silicon Valley tells us our agritech is world class, we are generally a step ahead. But we struggle with thinking globally and adapting to different markets soon enough. Programmes like this make a huge difference where innovators experience the very real and different conditions here out in the field, while connecting them with partnership and investment opportunities.”

The conference will feature a panel session about New Zealand’s unique ability to help feed the world, run by both Nicky and Agritech New Zealand’s CEO, Peter Wren-Hilton. Peter says the trip is expected to produce some significant international deals that will improve kiwi access to the US agritech ecosystem.

“This team is part of a growing body of global experts who are passionate about connecting, mentoring, and investing in agritech firms,” says Peter.

“When we first embarked on developing the program back in 2015, we could not have envisaged just how significant the long-term impact would be on our emerging agritech sector. These are exciting times for New Zealand. What happens over the next few months could well determine just where we sit in this global industry in the years ahead.”

Peter says the economic return of last year’s mission through increased cross-border trade is now being measured in the $US multi-millions. Alumni of the programme include kiwi firms like Robotics Plus and Autogrow who now have bases in Silicon Valley with significant international customers.

A list of the delegates, key mission info, updates and resources are available via this link.

About Callaghan Innovation 

Callaghan Innovation is New Zealand’s innovation agency. We activate innovation and help businesses grow faster through the power of science, technology and process transformation. Our staff of business innovation experts – including more than 200 of New Zealand’s leading scientists and engineers – connect people, opportunities and networks, providing technical solutions, business innovation programmes, incubator programmes, and R&D co-funding. 

About Agritech New Zealand 

Agritech New Zealand connects innovators, investors, regulators, researchers and interested public.  It promotes opportunities and challenges raised by agritech. Agritech New Zealand advances the ecosystem through advocacy, collaboration, innovation, talent and economic growth through international connections and missions.  

A couple of weeks ago, John Harvey, Managing Director of AgriFutures Australia, spent a week in New Zealand. The visit was designed to provide John with a better insight into New Zealand’s rapidly evolving agritech ecosystem.

I had the pleasure of spending 36 hours with John as we visited agritech companies in the Bay of Plenty & the Waikato. It was not AgriFutures first visit to NZ. That had happened in May when the organisation attended both the ’10 billion mouths’ conference in Tauranga and the formal launch dinner for Agritech New Zealand.

The opportunity for increasing collaboration with Australia’s agritech community has been on my radar for some time. When I am in London, San Francisco (tomorrow) or New York, New Zealand & Australia tend to get bundled together. It’s time that this was recognised by our respective governments. Similar sized economies in other parts of the world have understood the value of regional collaboration for years.

As an example, on Thursday I am meeting the founder of Silicon Vikings, the collaborative network that has brought the Scandinavian nations together to create much more significant, collective impact in Silicon Valley. If New Zealand & Australia’s agritech sectors want to generate that same regional dynamic, then greater collaboration is a key metric going forward.

Yesterday, I took my first step on this journey. Following John’s visit to New Zealand, AgriFutures invited me to join the Steering Committee for their major agritech conference in 2019: evokeAG. It takes place on 19-20 February in Melbourne.

On yesterday’s conference call, we were joined by the other Steering Committee members: Agthentic, AgFunder, Austrade, CSIRO, KPMG & Sprout X. We discussed some of the logistics around the conference and how New Zealand’s agritech community could be fully engaged. This opportunity is real. Whilst evokeAG was primarily established to promote the Australian agritech and foodtech sectors, its success depends very much on how it can be positioned as a regional story. This in my view adds significant value to its purpose. It is critical to attract targeted international delegations from Europe, North America, LATAM & Asia. It’s also hugely important for the region’s wider agritech ecosystem as it seeks to scale and generate more visibility on the global stage.

Opportunities for New Zealand’s agritech sector include:

• Showcasing the latest research and development across agriculture and food coming from Australia & New Zealand
• Start-up Alley – to showcase New Zealand start-up and early stage businesses to an international audience
• Providing a platform and stage for a number of kiwi thought leaders in the agribusiness space to share their knowledge
• Creating new opportunities for New Zealand agritech businesses to better understand and be better prepared for entry into the Australian market
• Attracting emerging agritech and food tech solutions for deployment into Australia & New Zealand

Tomorrow, I fly out to San Francisco. Reaching out to the global agritech ecosystem is a demonstration of the maturity and place in which New Zealand’s own agritech sector now occupies. I’m reminded of the ’10 billion mouths’ conference theme: ‘New Zealand’s agritech sector is #GoodForTheWorld‘.

Nowhere is that truer, nor more needed, than now.

In less than 3 weeks, 30+ New Zealand agritech delegates will be joining the 2018 Silicon Valley AgTech Immersion Program & Conference. This will be the third year that Wharf42 has helped facilitate the event, together with our partners Silicon Valley Forum, Callaghan Innovation & NZTE.

When we first embarked on developing the program back in 2015, we could not have envisaged just how significant the long-term impact would be on New Zealand’s emerging agritech sector. The economic ($$’s) return through increased cross-border trade is now being measured in the US$ multi-millions, with at least five of the original cohort of early stage companies now having an established presence in North America.

Later this month, a host of new faces and companies will be joining this journey. Welcome then: AgFirst Consultants, AGMARDT, AgResearch, AgriSmart, Agritech New Zealand, Autogrow, Blinc, Blockbit, Callaghan Innovation, Giltrap Engineering, Hop Revolution, IXOM, Jenkins Freshpac Systems, Marlborough Garlic, Miro Trading, Next Farm, NZTE, NZ Tech, NZVIF, Paysource, Plant & Food Research, Robotics Plus, Seeka, Sprout, Thelning Design, Trimax and Zespri. What an amazing cross-section of New Zealand’s world-leading agritech science & research capability joining forces with a number of the country’s most exciting, emerging agritech businesses, to meet and engage with Silicon Valley’s vast agtech ecosystem. We are absolutely stoked.

Last week, the delegation spent a day at the Waikato Innovation Park for a pre-program briefing. We heard from past delegates including Steve Saunders (Robotics Plus), Matt Flowerday (GPS-it) & Darryn Keiller (Autogrow) about their experiences of previous programs and where this experience has taken them since. We were also joined by representatives from NZ Story & NZVIF as we prepped the team on what to expect from, and how to prepare for, the week ahead. I think its fair to say that the delegation is pretty well pumped, locked and ready to go.

For me personally, this will be another opportunity to connect with a number of now established friends in the wider San Francisco Bay area’s agritech community. And this provides some glimpse to where history is about to be made. To build on the value that these successive programs have developed, we need to establish a more permanent set of bridges that connect New Zealand’s agritech businesses with the capital, networks and in-market farm access necessary to help scale our sector. Building those bridges and developing these connections has been a priority of several folk over the past 12 months and I expect to be able to share some of the results of that work when I report back from San Francisco later this month.

These are exciting times for New Zealand agritech. As the global demand for more food grows, we are well placed to provide the knowledge, the products and the services to help make that happen. This month’s Silicon Valley Immersion Program and Conference is just one more step in that direction. What happens over the next few months could well determine just where New Zealand sits in this global industry in the years ahead.

Agritech New Zealand is excited to introduce Claudia Rossler to a New Zealand audience. Claudia will be joining the high-profile delegation of leading global agritech thought leaders and investors, led by Arama Kukutai of Finistere Ventures, when they visit the country from 22 – 25 May.

Claudia will be attending the ‘10 billion mouths’ agritech conference in Tauranga on Wednesday 23 May.

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Agritech New Zealand is excited to introduce Andy Triedman to a New Zealand audience. Andy will be joining the high-profile delegation of leading global agritech thought leaders and investors, led by Arama Kukutai of Finistere Ventures, when they visit the country from 22 – 25 May.

Andy will be attending the ‘10 billion mouths’ agritech conference in Tauranga on Wednesday 23 May.

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Agritech New Zealand is excited to introduce Richard O’Gorman to a New Zealand audience. Richard will be joining the high-profile delegation of leading global agritech thought leaders and investors, led by Arama Kukutai of Finistere Ventures, when they visit the country from 22 – 25 May.

Richard will be attending the ‘10 billion mouths’ agritech conference in Tauranga on Wednesday 23 May.

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Agritech New Zealand is excited to introduce Sanjeev Krishnan to a New Zealand audience. Sanjeev will be joining the high-profile delegation of leading global agritech thought leaders and investors, led by Arama Kukutai of Finistere Ventures, when they visit the country from 22 – 25 May.

Sanjeev will be attending and speaking at the ‘10 billion mouths’agritech conference in Tauranga on Wednesday 23 May. As an investor in Beyond Meat & Ripple, he knows a thing or two about the disruption taking place in the foodtech sector.

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Arama should of course need no formal introduction. Arama is of Ngati Maniapoto, Tainui and Te Aupouri descent on his father’s side and spent his formative years in South Taranaki’s dairy sector. Last month it was announced that he led a $6.5m investment round into Palmerston North-based Biolumic. Arama is the keynote speaker at the ‘10 billion mouths’ event next month.

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Agritech New Zealand is excited to introduce Dr. Adrian Percy to a New Zealand audience. Adrian will be joining the high-profile delegation of leading global agritech thought leaders and investors, led by Arama Kukutai of Finistere Ventures, when they visit the country from 22 – 25 May.

Adrian will be attending the ‘10 billion mouths’ agritech conference in Tauranga on Wednesday 23 May.

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Agritech New Zealand is excited to introduce George Kellerman to a New Zealand audience. George will be joining the high-profile delegation of leading global agritech thought leaders and investors, led by Arama Kukutai of Finistere Ventures, when they visit the country from 22 – 25 May.

George will be attending and speaking at the ‘10 billion mouths’agritech conference in Tauranga on Wednesday 23 May. We are especially excited as Yamaha Motor Ventures & Laboratory Silicon Valley are the ’10 billion mouths’ principal conference sponsor.

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