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The wining team: Courtney Malloy, Maddy Anderson, Libby Meridith and Casey Purves.
The Innovation Awards at June's National Fieldays showcased several new ideas, alongside previous entries that had reached commercial reality.
As had become the norm, the Agri-Business Class at St Paul's Collegiate School in Hamilton were there with several teams, but 2025 was the time for girl power, with the young ladies of KiwiPrune named as winners of the Young Innovators of the Year Award, taking home a $2000 cheque.
The purpose of the KiwiPrune is to simplify the labour-intensive task of removing the plastic clips used in securing the kiwifruit vine as part of the growing process. The clips sit on the wires that run along the T-bar trellises that hold up kiwifruit vines in an orchard. Offering benefits of improved productivity, reduced strain, and enhanced sustainability; the latter achieved by allowing growers to reuse the clips in future crops.
The team is made up of Courtney Malloy, Maddy Anderson, Libby Meridith and Casey Purves, all year-13 boarders at St Paul’s. One of the co-creators, Courtney, had grown up on orchards, so had first-hand experience at having to manually remove the clips while working the vines during the school holidays. The design is taken from a normal wire cutter, modifieds to create the KiwiPrune. Other members of their group took the design to one of their parents who was an engineer, who created three prototypes, from which the team selected their winning entry.
“Usually, people must take the clips off via manipulation with their hands. There are thousands of them and it’s a bit of a pain,” co-creator Maddy Anderson said.
“KiwiPrune removes the clips without damaging the vine or the wire. It also has a serrated side to cut through ties.”
Maddy goes on to explain that they came up with the idea to make it easier for the growers and their workers, who quickly tired and had many problems removing older clips that became hard and brittle.
Having received lots of interest, the team plans to look at whether it can be used or modified for other industries, such as viticulture.
Head judge Jenny Cameron said the judges saw significant potential for use in kiwifruit orchards both in NZ and overseas, as well as in other horticulture and viticulture applications.
Visit www.kiwiprune.com
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