Published on the 30/10/2025 | Written by Heather Wright

Why the sector is NZ’s best bet for economic growth…

Agritech is New Zealand’s most immediate opportunity to ignite serious economic growth, and the country could be a global powerhouse in the sector by 2050 if it moves fast enough to claim the prize.

That’s according to Boston Consulting Group’s latest report, Growing Our Advantage in Agritech, which says by 2050 New Zealand can double investment, scale homegrown ventures worldwide and become the world’s living laboratory for sustainable agricultural innovation.

“Around the world, countries are turning agricultural know-how into high-value technology, and New Zealand can’t afford to be a spectator.”

But that future requires work, including the crucial step of working together as one ecosystem, rather than a collection of isolated efforts, with a collective effort by entrepreneurs, investors, universities, researchers, iwi and industry needed with government in an ‘enabling role’.

The report follows on from BCG’s report earlier this year, What Will New Zealand Be Known For In 2050, which urged the country to start picking winners and throwing resources behind them in order to develop new export opportunities. That report flagged the potential of agritech, while warning that existing key export sectors, such as dairy, film and tourism are at capacity and new ecosystems are needed in order to bolster New Zealand’s economy.

While the earlier report flagged space and satellites, greentech, creative industries and the future of medicine as other areas New Zealand could be known for, it’s agritech that BCG says is the most mature and immediate opportunity for the country.

Kelly Newton, BCG New Zealand managing partner and co-author of the report says New Zealand’s economy remains anchored in the success of its primary industries, but that narrow focus risks slowing the country’s ability to compete in a rapidly changing global market.

“Around the world, countries are turning agricultural know-how into high-value technology, and New Zealand can’t afford to be a spectator,” she says in a LinkedIn post.

Last year the agritech sector had revenue of around $2.5 billion, with government targeting $8 billion billion in 2030. BCG says agritech is already punching above its weight locally, with New Zealand’s share of global GDP below 0.5 percent, but the local agritech market making up five to eight percent of the global market.

That global market is forecast to hit US$54 billion by 2029, with robust growth driven by its role addressing rising demand for sustainable food production and agricultural productivity to help meet increasing food and resource demand.

BCG notes that a number of companies are already making an impact both locally and globally including Gallagher, LIC and Tomra Fresh, Robotics Plus, which was acquired by Yamaha Motor in early 2025, Halter, Levno which provides real-time monitoring systems and mobile alerts for fuel, milk, water and temperature, Pastoral Robotics and Canterbury-based Whenua Kura which is providing education and training to grow Māori agritech capability on Māori-owned farms.

New Zealand’s strong agricultural brand and global reputation for quality and safety in dairy, meat and horticulture provide a strong foundation for agritech, while the diversity of topographies and climate mean the country could be positioned as the world’s testbed for agritech, BCG says.

It’s also pushing the ‘cultural capital’ saying Māori knowledge systems, which emphasise holistic land stewardship among others, provide a values framework for innovative ventures and position the country for ‘impact partnerships and market development in Asia Pacific where consumers increasingly look for trusted and sustainable food products’.

A strong foundation of ecosystem components, including the strength of Massey and Lincoln universities for agricultural sciences and strong engineering and biotech departments at other universities and existing innovation hubs, also stands New Zealand in good stead the report says.

But there’s plenty holding the sector back including scarce scale-up capital, lack of international investors engaged in Kiwi agritech, the fragmented ecosystem with slow and inconsistent commercialisation pathways for research, and a domestic focus by many businesses, and regulatory bottlenecks.

Stem capability gaps and difficulty attracting and retaining global talent due to immigration settings and limited local training programs and underdeveloped innovation clusters are also highlighted as challenges for the sector.

The BCG report highlights the success of the Netherlands and Singapore, both global leaders in agricultural innovation and both of whom have strong public and private partnerships committed to accelerating innovation and commercial success in agritech.

In Singapore, where the 30 by 30 target aiming to see 30 percent of the nation’s nutritional needs supplied locally is helping drive agritech support, there’s strong government co-investment, while an agri-food innovation park is bringing together research institutions, corporates and startups, and a number of programs exist to provide mentorship, funding and global market access for agritech ventures.

The Netherlands too, has strong government support, with a robust investor and regulatory landscape to support innovation.

Quick wins and long shots

The BCG report highlights 15 actions to close the ‘most material gaps’ in the agritech ecosystem – from quick wins that will bring high impact to bold bets and strategic long shots.

Among the actions for quick wins are expanding agritech-focused co-investment programmes, such as the Elevate NZ Venture Fund and Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures initiative with dedicated agritech mandates to bridge series A-C funding gaps.

In a recent interview with iStart, AgriTechNZ boss Brendan O’Connell noted his concerns around the closure of Callaghan Innovation, which has left a hole in early-stage support, particularly around preparing businesses for global markets and product-market fit.

O’Connell suggested an expansion of NZTE’s capabilities – including additional funding – to specifically cover early stage pipeline as well as growth and scale stages.

Having an ‘orchestrator’ – such as AgriTechNZ, which was NZ’s first orchestrator for the market – to target foreign direct investment, and encouraging commercialisation of university ventures by removing the mandatory university ownership stake and establishing a near-term funding mechanism for university technology transfer offices are also touted as potential quick wins which are easier to execute and provide high impact, alongside tailored capital for Māori agritech ventures and enabling iw-led partnership ventures on whenua.

Long-hanging fruit, which are deemed straightforward and delivering incremental impact, include funding regional innovation hubs to design and test agritech solutions and provide ‘innovation-as-a-service’ for global partners, requiring secondary school Stem education and accelerating digital agritech training pathways and micro-credentials.

High impact, but harder to execute are the bold bets, including embedding agritech in schooling, expanding micro-credentials and scaling work-integrated learning, establishing agritech regulatory sandboxes and policy to co-design pilots, and fast-tracking an agritech regulatory pathway to market for emerging agritech fields, including establishing a ‘virtual clinic to connect startups with the Ministry of Primary industries and other authorities for pre-consent guidance.

The final bucket of recommendations is strategic long shots, including embedding Māori culture and traditional knowledge systems in agritech IP and launching agritech returnee fellowships for Kiwi diaspora.

While the BCG report offers up its views on the path forward, AgriTechNZ’s O’Connell, who says he ‘couldn’t agree more’ that concerted action is required, says the industry body is promoting a ‘tight five’ set of policy actions to turn its vision of agritech as New Zealand’s future into reality.

The ambitious tight five, many of which align with BCG’s recommendations, are:

• Including agritech indicators and targets in national productivity reporting
• Integrating agritech missions into trade and investment programs
• Mobilising capital and co-investment through Invest NZ and a sovereign growth-finance mandate
• Funding regional agritech hubs and farm innovation networks, and
• Ensure equitable access to public data and innovation infrastructure.

“Right now we’re missing a trick and letting others build the advantages that could rest here,” O’Connell says. “Agritech is New Zealand’s future, if we connect up the parts that could make it hum. We can’t keep waiting to see what the market delivers. We need to form the right views, partnerships and national intent to lead the future of sustainable food innovation, globally.”