Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures projects
Find out about Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFF Futures) projects that have been funded so far.
Vegetable production nitrogen management workshops
- Project start date:
- Completed date:
- MPI funding: $64,800
- Co-investment funding: $43,249
- Sectors: Horticulture, Sector resilience
- Project partners: LandWISE incorporated
- Regions: Nationwide
This project developed free online learning content covering plants and nutrients, nutrient management, fertiliser and irrigation performance assessments, running on-farm trials and developing nutrient budgets. This will help vegetable growers and the wider fresh vegetable production industry to meet increasing environmental expectations.
Access vegetable production nitrogen management courses – LandWISE
Veolia organic waste bioconversion facility – feasibility study
- Project start date:
- Project length: 1 year
- MPI funding: $748,384
- Co-investment funding: $1,122,576
- Sectors: Alternative proteins
- Sub-sectors: Insect-based protein
- Project partners: Veolia Water Services (ANZ) Pty Ltd
- Regions: Auckland, Hawke's Bay, Manawatū-Whanganui, Waikato
This feasibility study will assess the opportunity for organic waste bioconversion using black soldier flies at an industrial level in New Zealand. The insect-based bioconversion would transform organic waste into high value biomass: insect protein, lipids, and organic fertiliser.
The study aims to confirm the technical implementation of the process at an industrial scale, the market interest for such products, and whether the technology will work in commercial terms in the New Zealand context.
Vineyard-scale monitoring of unproductive vines
- Project start date:
- Project length: 2 years
- MPI funding: $534,333
- Co-investment funding: $801,500
- Sectors: Horticulture
- Sub-sectors: Viticulture
- Project partners: Cropsy Technologies Limited
- Regions: Marlborough
This project will develop real-time tools to help wine growers understand the health and productivity of every vine. Growers will be able to identify missing, dead, or unproductive vines and replace them, to optimise vineyard land use and productivity.
Wairoa Hort Cluster
- Project start date:
- Project length: 2 years
- MPI funding: $200,000
- Co-investment funding: $40,000
- Sectors: Horticulture, Māori agribusiness
- Project partners: Tatau Tatau o Te Wairoa PSGE
- Regions: Hawke's Bay
Tatau Tatau o Te Wairoa PSGE are leading a Wairoa community initiative looking at the potential to establish horticulture on a commercial basis in Wairoa. The project seeks to support landowners to undertake feasibility on their land specifically to look at conversion of land to intensive horticulture.
Wairoa Hort Cluster 2
- Project start date:
- Project length: 2 years
- MPI funding: $200,000
- Co-investment funding: $40,000
- Sectors: Horticulture, Māori agribusiness
- Sub-sectors: Other vegetables/vegetable products
- Project partners: Tatau Tatau o Te Wairoa PSGE
- Regions: Hawke's Bay
This project is an expansion of Wairoa Hort Cluster to include additional surrounding land blocks. Tatau Tatau o Te Wairoa PSGE are leading a Wairoa community initiative looking at the potential to establish horticulture on a commercial basis in Wairoa. The project seeks to support landowners to undertake feasibility on their land specifically to look at conversion of land to intensive horticulture.
Wairoa Sheep and Beef
- Project start date:
- Project length: 4 years
- MPI funding: $444,300
- Co-investment funding: $88,860
- Sectors: Māori agribusiness, Meat
- Project partners: Wairoa Sheep and Beef
- Regions: Hawke's Bay
The aim of this project is to replicate the stock and land care practices on Pohaturoa Station, to increase the productivity and profitability of two other land blocks.
Wakame Fresh – Project Wakatipu
- Project start date:
- Completed date:
- MPI funding: $75,200
- Co-investment funding: $114,182
- Sectors: Māori agribusiness, Seafood/aquatic
- Project partners: Wakame Fresh Ltd
- Regions: Waikato
Project Whakatiputipu aimed to demonstrate the commercial viability of harvesting, processing and exporting edible seaweed products into Japan. They conducted a feasibility study, including planning and finalising an approach to trial export of samples of wakame for market research.
Government backs edible seaweed venture – Government media release
Water to milk
- Project start date:
- Project length: 3 years
- MPI funding: $995,180
- Co-investment funding: $1,750,170
- Sectors: Agritech, Dairy
- Sub-sectors: Cow dairy products
- Project partners: Dairy Farm Water Management Ltd.
- Regions: Nationwide
This project addresses the growing need for data to improve water management practices on dairy farms. It aims to prove the business case for environmentally sustainable dairy farming practices in New Zealand using world-leading technology and create a commercially available, fully integrated system of sensors, analytics, software, and hardware. The system will consist of linked modules to manage all of a dairy farm’s water supply, use, and impacts that is in real time cost-effective, practical, and useful for the farmer.
What’s coming out of tile drains?
- Project start date:
- Project length: 3 years 10 months
- MPI funding: $1,338,334
- Co-investment funding: $436,820
- Sectors: Dairy, Horticulture
- Sub-sectors: Other animal dairy products/research
- Project partners: AgFirst Consultants Ltd, New Zealand Apples and Pears Inc, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, Zespri International Ltd, Vegetable Research and Innovation Fund, Horticulture New Zealand, Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers Association, Hawke’s Bay Vegetable Growers Association, Heinz Wattie’s Ltd, Bayley’s Produce
- Regions: Nationwide
The horticulture sector wants to understand and mitigate their impact on waterways. Tile drainage systems are common under high value horticultural properties. This project seeks to increase understanding of what impact tile drains are having on water quality, positive or negative, and how horticultural land management may be able to improve this.
Horticulture sector to investigate impact of tile drains on water quality – MPI Media release
Whenua Haumanu: Nurturing the land through exploring pastoral farming
- Project start date:
- Project length: 7 years
- MPI funding: $17,581,000
- Co-investment funding: $8,540,000
- Sectors: Dairy, Regenerative agriculture
- Sub-sectors: Cow dairy products
- Project partners: Massey University, Fonterra, Synlait, Beef+LambNZ, DairyNZ, Pāmu, Northland Dairy Development Trust, Fertiliser Association of NZ, Ravensdown Fertiliser Cooperative, Ballance Agri-Nutrients, Livestock Improvement Corporation, PGG Wrightson Seeds, Agricom, Barenbrug, On-Farm Research, AgFirst and Quorum Sense
- Regions: Canterbury, Manawatū-Whanganui
This project focuses on both standard and diverse pastures and conventional and regenerative management practices. It’s taking place across several research sites to assess the suitability and relevance of regenerative agriculture in New Zealand. The project will measure multiple aspects across the farm system, exploring the impact on soils, pasture performance, animal production and welfare (dairy and sheep), nutrient levels and losses, carbon production and storage and product quality. The results gained from the project will provide a robust evidence base for both conventional and regenerative practices, with results being incorporated into scientific and industry models, and tested across a wide range of partner sites across New Zealand, to inform the international marketing of our agricultural products.
Outcome logic model [PDF, 168 KB]
Whenua Haumanu – Nurturing the land through exploring pastoral farming – YouTube (3.02)
January 2024 to March 2024: Whenua Haumanu progress report [PDF, 181 KB]
October 2023 to December 2023: Whenua Haumanu progress report [PDF, 187 KB]
July 2023 to September 2023: Whenua Haumanu progress report [PDF, 222 KB]
February 2022 to June 2023: Whenua Haumanu progress report [PDF, 175 KB]
Whey technology products
- Project start date:
- Completed date:
- MPI funding: $29,641
- Co-investment funding: $26,348
- Sectors: Dairy, Food and beverage products, Nutraceuticals/medical
- Sub-sectors: Other animal dairy products/research
- Project partners: WheyTech Bionics NZ Limited
- Regions: Canterbury, Hawke's Bay
This project set out to develop technology to process whey permeate as a sweetener product with anti-diabetic properties, transforming a cheesemaking waste product into a value-added natural food additive with potential nutraceutical value. WheyTech Bionics has developed an ultrafiltration process to isolate the peptide in cheese whey, producing a solution which can be dried into a powder and substituted into high sugar foods associated with causing diabetes.
Whitebait pilot facility project
- Project start date:
- Completed date:
- MPI funding: $988,011
- Co-investment funding: $1,414,853
- Sectors: Māori agribusiness, Seafood/aquatic
- Project partners: Premium Marine Technology Limited
- Regions: Southland
This project built a pilot whitebait production facility in Bluff, demonstrating that it is feasible to continuously produce whitebait to service domestic demand. The facility is scalable, and a market and price points have been identified.
Land-based commercial whitebait farm launches in Bluff
First land-based commercial whitebait farm launches in Bluff − Stuff
Wild harvest solutions
- Project start date:
- Project length: 1 year
- MPI funding: $60,000
- Co-investment funding: $90,000
- Sectors: Meat
- Project partners: Merit Meats Limited
- Regions: Otago, Southland, West Coast
This project aims to establish the feasibility of a tool to achieve market premiums and manage the supply chain emissions of game meat products. The tool will account for methane and carbon emissions through data science and geospatial and remote sensing technologies. The project will deliver a desktop model that incorporates split-gas footprints and recommendations for better ecosystem management.
Wisewool: Wool bud and needle punched blanketing innovation
- Project start date:
- Project length: 3 years
- MPI funding: $790,000
- Co-investment funding: $1,185,000
- Sectors: Natural fibres
- Sub-sectors: Animal-based fibres, Strong wool
- Project partners: Allwool Limited
- Regions: Gisborne
This project seeks to innovate traditional wool knops to increase the ingredient’s market potential. Woollen buds or knops are wool fibres that have been processed to form small, light, fluffy balls. When used in large quantities as a filler ingredient (such as in woollen mattresses), these knops increase the bounce-back and compression resilience of the fibre.
Wool project aims to put money back in farmers’ pockets – MPI media release
Wood fire-retardant pilot project
- Project start date:
- Project length: 3 years
- MPI funding: $785,548
- Co-investment funding: $1,178,322
- Sectors: Forestry
- Sub-sectors: Sawn timber
- Project partners: Abodo Wood Ltd
- Regions: Bay of Plenty
This project will research, develop and trial the commercialisation of a resin formula to create a durable fire-retardant exterior wood prototype from New Zealand grown radiata pine. The product will be used in industrial applications where timber is currently prohibited. It will be tested against New Zealand, Australian, European, and American standards for fire retardant properties, performance and durability.
Wool Impact
- Project start date:
- Project length: 3 years
- MPI funding: $4,500,000
- Co-investment funding: $6,900,000
- Sectors: Natural fibres
- Sub-sectors: Animal-based fibres, Strong wool
- Project partners: Wool Impact
- Regions: Nationwide
Wool Impact is being set up as an industry service delivery body that seeks to reset the strong wool ecosystem. It will act as a connector and a catalyst to create new demand for New Zealand strong wool to meet the needs of consumers. It will also support the wool ecosystem with core services to help the sector become market fit and responsive to market-led growth and sustainability.
Government backs action to drive strong wool growth – Government media release
Wool in Schools
- Project start date:
- Completed date:
- MPI funding: $76,686
- Co-investment funding: $76,686
- Sectors: Natural fibres
- Project partners: Campaign for Wool New Zealand Trust
- Regions: Nationwide
This project involved refurbishing the physical assets and digital course material of Campaign for Wool New Zealand Trust’s highly successful Wool In Schools educational programme, focused at primary level students. This programme allows the Trust to connect with and teach the current and next generation of wool consumers about the qualities of wool.
About the Wool in Schools initiative
Woolkin – Naturesclip innovation platform
- Project start date:
- Project length: 1 year
- MPI funding: $120,000
- Co-investment funding: $180,000
- Sectors: Natural fibres
- Sub-sectors: Animal-based fibres, Strong wool
- Project partners: Woolkin
- Regions: Nationwide
Naturesclip is Woolkin’s natural wool fibre material platform that enables innovative use of wool in 3D products such as children’s toys. This project aims to advance the properties of Naturesclip to enable new product applications.