Damien O’Connor Criticises Budget 2026 as ‘Miserable’ for Rural New Zealand
A miserable budget that didn’t deliver much for anyone.
However, New Zealand's agritech community seems to be making a worthwhile contribution to the country's economy as well.
A recently released NZ Agritech Insights Report 2022 showed that of the country's Top 200 technology exporters - around 10% or 22 companies - were responsible for $1.6 billion worth of business.
"Agritech is critical to the country's efforts to produce high quality, high value food and fibre products with a lighter touch on the environment," says Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor. "It is not only contributes to economic growth but is also vital to the prosperity and wellbeing of our regions - through high value employment and the products and services they provide to our primary industries."
Encouragingly, the report delivers a snapshot showing that NZ's agritech sector delivers about 11.4% of the country's Technology Investment Network' 200 revenue, with its $1.6b contribution - up $118 million on the previous year.
The sector is employing around 5,400 people, paid on average $95,000, with average earnings generated per employee of $296,000. Categories in agritech include data solutions (29.9%), post-harvest (29.4%), animal and crop health (26%), growing and harvesting (9.1%) and environmental management (5.6%).
Key companies in the NZ Agritech sector include the likes of Gallagher Group, LIC and Datamars, which have revenues in excess of $100m. In the $20m to $100m sector, Waikato Milking Systems reported a result of $73m and Trimax returned $40m.
At the other end of the spectrum, Robotics Plus, Levno and Rezare Systems delivered revenue of $10m, $6.1m and $4.17m, respectively.
Encouragingly, the report also listed more than 100 companies operating in the NZ's Agritech sector, with many new names starting to emerge - such as Cropsy, Halter, Milktech NZ and UBCO.
