AGMARDT

21/05/2025

AGMARDT is sharing more regular updates on LinkedIn. Please connect with us there to stay up-to-date with our news, and updates we share from our partners and grantees. Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/agmardt-the-agricultural-and-marketing-research-and-development-trust-/posts/

28/04/2025

Looks like an awesome couple of days!

28/04/2025

📢 Information for the next grant round 📅. AGMARDT is currently refreshing our organisational strategy. This means that 2025–26 grant rounds are yet to be determined.

We’ll provide more information on our website once our strategy update is complete and the budget for next financial year is finalised.

Please check https://agmardt.org.nz/closing-dates/ for updates.

Thank you for your patience!

05/03/2025

Our closing date for our next funding round is Tuesday 11 March. For further information on our funding opportunities, please have a look at our website.

The Agricultural and Marketing Research and Development Trust (AGMARDT) funds the development of leadership, innovation and markets.

18/02/2025

Caught up with industry legends Mike Petersen and Bruce Wills on The Common Ground podcast yet?

With the next phase of The Common Ground releasing soon, this podcast is an ideal scene-setter – exploring how the industry got here, why industry leadership is changing fast and where deeper collaboration & partnership could take us next.

Head to www.thecommonground.org.nz to learn more, listen to the full podcast and sign-up for updates.

12/02/2025

Last year, AGMARDT and KPMG proposed The Common Ground. Today, the conversation continues.

In this episode of The Common Ground podcast series, two food & fibre leaders with a track record for traversing change, analyse our proposal to supercharge collaboration.

Joining Sarah Perriam-Lampp, former Beef + Lamb NZ chair Mike Petersen and former Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills discuss a long list of challenges and opportunities facing food & fibre – like calls to reform the Commodity Levies Act, our changing relationship with government, the promise of more vertical collaboration and how trust is already powering the sector forward.

Head to www.thecommonground.org.nz to learn more and listen to the full podcast.

26/01/2025

In 2022, AGMARDT supported the work of the NZ Product Accelerator to quantify the economic and environmental opportunity for New Zealand Bio-Forest products.

The report was released in 2023 and showed that these products have the potential to create a new manufacturing and processing industry, almost the same size as the dairy industry.

NZ Bio Forestry was part of an industry-led working group and identified an opportunity to take the next step through an R&D project focused on creating black wood bio-pellets.

“The people behind NZ Bio Forestry have the passion and thinking to really make a go of things and we are happy to support one small step in their innovation journey,” says AGMARDT GM Lee-Ann Marsh.

Read their full story below!

In 2017, NZ Bio Forestry was formed when a group of partners from New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan joined together with a mission to create a “sustainable and renewable bioeconomy that provides scalable alternatives to fossil fuels and petrochemical products.”

13/01/2025

Our strategic shift to better support breakthrough NZ food and fibre businesses to scale is underway.

With two recent direct investments in Private Capital Group and Cultivate Ventures, we’re acting on the strategic intent behind our newly developed New Zealand Food and Fibre Direct Investment Policy.

In short, this strategy is about supporting breakthrough food & fibre innovations with the investment they need to take a game-changing product to local and international markets.

You can read more about how this strategic shift complements our traditional focus on early-stage innovation grants by clicking below.

To support breakthrough NZ food and fibre businesses to commercialise and scale, AGMARDT has recently made two direct investments with Private Capital Group and Cultivate Ventures.

19/12/2024

AGMARDT would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Our office is closed from Monday 23 December through to Friday 3 January (we open on Monday 6 January).

Our next application closing date is 11 March 2025. Please visit our website for information on our grants. https://agmardt.org.nz/

Check out our latest Annual Report which features our reflections and highlights from the past year and how AGMARDT is playing its part with others to ignite the future of food and fibre Aotearoa New Zealand.

Browse and view the AGMARDT annual reports here.

17/12/2024

Over the past 2 years, AGMARDT has increased its focus on partnerships with organisations that share similar values, who are bold and ambitious in their thinking, and who are working to create transformational change across New Zealand’s food and fibre sector.

We’re excited about the 2-year partnership with FoodHQ, as they embark on their mission to bring together the entire agri-food sector to build a truly sustainable food system in Aotearoa New Zealand that is export focussed and innovative.

Since 2003, FoodHQ has been the centre of science-led food research and innovation in New Zealand. Historically, they have been guided largely by the food science and innovation sectors, which has allowed them to develop deep connections across the science innovation ecosystem and with government.

16/12/2024

This is a story with many connected parts: Entrepreneur Nikolai Macnee was part of the Sprout Accelerator programme before applying for AGMARDT funding … and credits his AIG grant for helping boost his profile prior to the capital raise for his company, Metrovate.

Now part of the Sprout investment portfolio, Nikolai is on a mission to “make plants grow faster” by developing precision, novel biostimulants that are safe to apply to a wide variety of crops – moving away from potentially harmful herbicides and pesticides.

Nikolai Macnee comes by his love for biology and food production quite naturally:

11/12/2024

In 2023, AGMARDT launched an exclusive partnership grant to support transformative initiatives for New Zealand’s food and fibre sector. It’s a grant that aligns with AGMARDT’s strategic commitment to collaborative efforts that drive meaningful impact.

We’re excited to announce that The Aotearoa Circle is the most recent organisation to receive this grant, building on nearly four years of work together. Click below to read more about our work to date including the Mana Kai initiative and the Modern Genetic Technology report.

In 2023, AGMARDT launched an exclusive Collaborative Partnership grant to support transformative initiatives for New Zealand’s food and fibre sector. It’s a grant that aligns with AGMARDT’s strategic commitment to collective efforts that drive meaningful impact.