About the conference

No matter their size, companies big and small are turning to innovation to grow their businesses by taking their products and services to the next level. To innovate effectively, access to good information and insights is essential.

The 2017 Food and Fibre Innovation Conference was themed "Innovation – from Vision to Action". It focused on how a business engages in innovation across its supply chain, from using inputs through to how products are processed, packaged, distributed and consumed.

Our outstanding line-up of speakers from New Zealand and overseas came to share their expert perspectives and practical know-how on important areas, including:

• examples of innovation that have been successfully adopted and scaled-up
• impediments to innovation in the food and fibre industries, and how to overcome these
• how to identify and seize innovation opportunities
• how to plan for innovation
• how to finance innovation
• how customer-centric innovation can add value
• how innovation can improve sustainability outcomes.

PGP Expo – Innovation in action

MPI helps companies to kick-start their innovation by enabling collaboration and investment through the Primary Growth Partnership (PGP). Attendees of the Food and Fibre Innovation Conference also had entry to the PGP Expo. The expo gave a first-hand experience of the exciting range of PGP programmes underway, and the innovations they're delivering across our primary sector value chains.

Speakers

The Food and Fibre Innovation conference featured a range of fantastic speakers, sharing practical knowledge and exciting innovation possibilities with the audience.

View full speaker profiles [PDF, 1.7 MB]

Presentations

Presentation slides from our speakers are available for you to view. Note that the presentation from Baba Shiv is unavailable.

Henry Gordon-Smith

• Founder & Managing director, Agritecture Consulting
• Presentation: Growing greens in the grid: innovative urban agriculture technologies and business models [PDF, 5.6 MB]

Lisa Kay Solomon

• Chair, Transformational Practices, Singularity University
• Presentation: Design thinking and a mindset for innovation [PDF, 1.4 MB]

Ian Proudfoot

• Global head of Agribusiness, KPMG
• Presentation: The world is not waiting for us – are we keeping up with a world of fast agri-food innovation? [PDF, 1.2 MB]

Volker Kuntzsch 

• Chief executive, Sanford
• Presentation: So much more than just fish [PDF, 2.4 MB]

Julian Elder

• Chief executive, Scion
• Presentation: Scion – the opportunity for fibre innovation [PDF, 4.2 MB]

Hilton Collier

• General manager, Pakihiroa Farms
• Presentation: Pasture to plate - how Ngāti Porou agribusiness is responding to PGP programmes [PDF, 980 KB]

Tony Egan

• Managing director, Greenlea Premier Meats
• Presentation: A vision for New Zealand's Primary Sector [PDF, 451 KB]
• Presentation: Report back on food and fibre industry working group [PDF, 1.4 MB]
• Speech notes [PDF, 44 KB]

Amanda Gilbertson

• Innovation and commercialisation consultant, Gilbertson Associates
• Presentation: What are incubators, accelerators, and angels? How startups can find investment [PDF, 1.1 MB]

Jarred Mair

• Director – Sector policy, Ministry for Primary Industries
• MPI investment to support our understanding of consumers, disruption, and emerging opportunities [PDF, 1.7 MB]

About the conference

This unique one-day conference looked 10 to 20 years into the future to consider how New Zealand's primary industries can prepare for the challenges and opportunities it will bring.

For example:

• Who might our customers be in 10 to 20 years' time?
• What products might they want?
• What emerging trends do we already know about?
• How might future drivers change the way we grow and process our food, beverage, fibre and forestry products?
• How might pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals create new products and markets for our primary industries?
• What research and development will we soon need to be able to meet our future needs? 
• Where do we need to invest now to improve our capability and resilience?
• Is NZ's innovation system able to respond to long-term opportunities and challenges?

Download a report about the conference workshops [PDF, 310 KB]

Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) Expo

An expo, showcasing our Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) programmes, was held after the conference.

The PGP is MPI's flagship investment programme that co-invests with industry in ambitious innovation to increase the market success of the primary sector. 

• Find out more about the PGP

Programme

Download a copy of the conference programme [PDF, 141 KB]

Speakers

The conference included an inspiring range of speakers from New Zealand and overseas.

• Read profiles of the speakers [PDF, 1.1 MB]

The following speaker presentations are available to download:

Session 1 – A focus on food

Natasha Telles D’Costa

• Associate Director, Visionary Science Practice: Chemicals, Materials and Food, APAC, Frost & Sullivan
• Presentation topic: The business of health: A focus on food [PDF, 11 MB]

Bill Kaye-Blake Director

• Finance and Economics, PwC
• Presentation topic: Exports of functional foods [PDF, 693 KB]

Martin Kussman

• Chief Scientist, High-Value Nutrition, National Science Challenge
• Presentation topic: Translational science for food and health [PDF, 3.3 MB]

Steve Maharey

• Vice-Chancellor, Massey University
• Presentation topic: A food nation: The New Zealand food story and how to make it real [PDF, 1.1 MB]

Will Goodwin

• Head of NZ Direct Investments, NZ Super Fund
• Presentation topic: An institutional investor's perspective on New Zealand agriculture [PDF, 1.1 MB]

Session 2 – A global perspective

Joe Mariani

• Series Editor, Deloitte’s research campaign on the Internet of Things (IoT)
• Presentation topic: Information per serving [PDF, 1.4 MB]

Ian Proudfoot

• Global Head of Agribusiness, KPMG
• Presentation topic: Global perspectives [PDF, 14 MB]

Jarred Mair

• Director Sector Policy, Ministry for Primary Industries
• Presentation topic: The future of food [PDF, 2.9 MB]

Justine Gilliland

• Director Investment Programmes, Ministry for Primary Industries
• Presentation topic: Shaping New Zealand's food and fibre future: A summary of industry workshops [PDF, 3.7 MB]

Graham Smith

• Chief Executive, Federated Farmers
• Presentation topic: Shaping New Zealand food and fibre future [PDF, 828 KB]

Tim Mackle

• Chief Executive, DairyNZ
• Presentation topic: Transforming the Dairy Value Chain PGP [PDF, 4.4 MB]

Find out more

Download the conference brochure [PDF, 2.1 MB]

MPI held a one-day workshop for manufacturers of infant formula and formulated supplementary food for young children to support implementation of the new Animal Products Notice: Manufacture of dairy based infant formula products and formulated supplementary foods for young children.

Download the notice [PDF, 523 KB]

About the event

MPI hosted 2 events in May 2017 – one in Hamilton and one in Christchurch – to celebrate the achievements of the Sustainable Farming Fund’s projects. This was an opportunity for current and previous grant holders (and other stakeholders) to share lessons learnt from their projects.

Find out more about the Sustainable Farming Fund

The Food Protection Forum was a one day conference held in October 2015 for leaders in the food industry to learn about the importance of a food safety culture and food defence in protecting New Zealand's economy, reputation and consumers globally.

Speaker presentations

The forum included presentations from international and New Zealand speakers about food defence, and our food safety culture. The presentations are available to download:

Food Safety Culture – Session 2

Frank Yiannas

• Author of Food Safety Culture and Vice President Food Safety, Wal-mart.
• Presentation topic: Developing a corporate food safety culture (Industry perspective) [PDF, 10 MB]

Watch Frank Yiannas's presentation – YouTube

Professor Alan Reilly

• Adjunct Professor, Institute of Food and Health, University College, Dublin; former Chief Exective, Food Safety Authority, Ireland.
• Presentation topic: Food crisis management - implications for regulators: Lessons learnt from the EU-wide horsemeat scandal [PDF, 7.6 MB]

Watch Alan Reilly's presentation – YouTube

Food Defence – Session 3

Dr John W Larkin

• Research Director, Food Protection and Defence Institute (A United States Homeland Security Centre of Excellence).
• Presentation topic: Assessing the bioweapons threat [PDF, 10 MB]

Watch John Larkin's presentation – YouTube

Dr John Spink

• Director and Assistant Professor, Food Fraud Initiative, Michigan State University.
• Presentation topic: Food fraud [PDF, 6.5 MB]

Watch John Spink's presentation – YouTube

Partnering to enhance our Food Safety Culture – Session 4

Jim Flannery

• Senior Executive Vice President, Operations and Industry Collaboration – Grocery Manufacturers Association.
• Presentation topic: Findings from Consumer Information Transparency Initiative [PDF, 4.6 MB]

Watch Jim Flannery's presentation – YouTube

Greg Gent

• Dairy Capability Working Group.
• Presentation topic: Driving food safety capability out of culture (Industry perspective) [PPT, 2.4 MB]

Watch Greg Gent's presentation – YouTube

Captain David Morgan

• Chief Flight Operations and Safety Officer / Chief Pilot – Air New Zealand.
• Safety management [PDF, 2.8 MB]

Watch David Morgan's presentation – YouTube

Keynote presentations and panel discussions on YouTube

• Martyn Dunne - welcome
• Hon Jo Goodhew - opening keynote speaker
• Panel discussion session 2 - Food Safety Culture
• Panel discussion session 3 - Food Defence
• Scott Gallacher - Government's approach
• Panel discussion session 4 - Partnering to enhance our Food Safety Culture
• Food Protection Forum 2015 programme

Food Forum full playlist

Find out more

Download the forum programme [PDF, 2.8 MB]

Who to contact

If you have questions about the forum, email info@mpi.govt.nz.