The Business, Innovation and Employment Ministry plan to boost the contribution made by agritech to the economy has been welcomed by the sector, with the caution the biggest challenges lie ahead in delivering on the ambitious goals.
AgriTech New Zealand head Peter Wren-Hilton describes the agritech industry transformation plan as massive and the culmination of a year’s close work between the industry group and government officials.
The plan has been welcomed by Wren-Hilton for its transparency and comprehensive sharing of roles among a number of government departments.
“It is not often you find five to six government agencies working together on one initiative.”
The Government has committed to transformation in agritech, digital technologies, food and beverage and forestry-wood processing.
The crux of the plan is to turbo-boost the sector’s growth by aiding increased investment, commercialisation, skills development and global opportunities.
The agritech sector is valued at $1.5 billion worth of exports but the plan aims to grow that.
It outlines NZ’s small market as suitable for testing.
The sector’s ingenuity, free-trade agreements and high-quality research are key foundations for agritech’s faster growth.
Wren-Hilton said when then Prime Minister Helen Clark launched the Knowledge Wave initiative in 2001 there were high hopes for the country’s agritech sector to advance quicker than it did.
“But that knowledge wave tended to move past NZ. We had countries like Israel pick up the investment and the development much quicker and for a time NZ has had to try to close up on that gap.”
He believes NZ has managed to close the gap in the past five years and rather than being a catch-up plan it is more an accelerator to take NZ to a lead position globally.
NZ is estimated to have 950 agritech companies with the largest sub-group being growing and harvesting technology, followed by data solutions and environmental management.
Almost half the firms are early-stage start-ups with mature firms comprising 38% of the industry.
However, despite millions being invested in agritech by large overseas companies globally the value of NZ’s agritech exports has wavered between $1.1b and $1.2b over the past five years.
A focus on pasture production, domestic use and a disconnect from research and development to marketing commercial technology are identified as shortcomings.
But there has also been a shortage of growth capital and a lack of interoperability or shared platforms in the technology developed.
The plan has an action list that identifies specific projects and overall industry aspects for growth attention.
Robotics is one of the specific areas that will benefit with the development of a robotics, automation and sensing academy, leveraging off a well-founded existing level of work in horticulture, particularly kiwifruit sorting and apple picking.
Wren-Hilton said the specific projects requiring clear outcomes are another plus for the plan.
“They are very specific, right down to having the necessary agencies responsible for them already being assigned.”
Bay of Plenty has been identified as a potential venue for the academy with leading company Robotics-Plus already operating commercially there.
To inject more capital into a cash-strapped start-up sector the plan calls for an agritech venture capital fund.
It will be spun off separate to the $300 million venture capital fund established in last year’s Budget and it is hoped that with interest from private parties the fund could be established to address the gap in early-stage funding NZ agritech companies face.
The plan also calls for a specific project creating valid trials that allow for evaluation of technology to help minimise farming’s environmental footprint.
That includes sensing and automated technology focused on nutrient and water movement.
It will be reinforced under the title Farm2050 as a global outreach to identify disruptive technologies in nutrient management.
Wren-Hilton said AgriTech NZ and officials are hosting three workshops on the plan that includes an invitation to the sector to contribute and ensure it stays on target. The workshops are in Auckland, Hamilton and Lincoln in March.
