Pāmu Appoints Dave Nuku as Associate Director
State farmer Pāmu (Landcorp) has announced Dave Nuku is its new Associate Director, joining the board as an observer from 1 March 2026.
Pamu’s Deer Milk has won the Best Dairy Ingredient category at the World Dairy Innovation Awards, announced in Laval, France overnight.
Pāmu Chief Executive Mark Leslie says the win is a validation of the hard work and innovation that has gone into creating an all-new product for the agri-sector.
“All New Zealanders, as shareholders in Pāmu should be really proud of this win, at what is essentially the World Cup for the dairy sector,” he says.
“Our deer milk product has been steadily growing in popularity among high end chefs and as a unique new ingredient in cosmetics. But that’s not where it ends.
“This win recognises the extensive application and unique properties of deer milk, and the growing recognition of deer milk as a specialty dairy product”.
Pāmu Deer Milk is sourced through a partnership with Peter and Sharon McIntyre, who run a deer farm near Gore and now through the company’s own farm Aratiatia, in the North Island’s central plateau.
“While Covid has meant more challenging market conditions to promote deer milk in the short term, the reopening of the world means Pāmu Deer Milk can once again make its way back on the world stage, and this win is an incredible boost to that,” Leslie says.
He says Pamu is excited about the potential for the product and the opening of a new deer milking facility near Taupo, to complement the existing supply from the McIntyres is a testament to that.
“We have also developed a world first deer milk nutritional supplement range called Doe Nutrition containing Pāmu Deer Milk which offers a range of nutritional benefits, which we are currently preparing to sell in Vietnam and China.”
The Doe Nutrition innovation received a highly commended rating at last night’s awards, making it a doubly successful occasion for the company.
Leslie says the growing recognition of Pāmu Deer Milk’s unique properties, especially when it comes to nutrition and digestion, signals it has the potential to be a contributor to our primary sector.
“This award is a hugely important milestone and validation that we are onto something very exciting.”
New Zealand's diverse cheesemaking talent shone brightly last night as the New Zealand Specialist Cheesemakers Association (NZSCA) crowned the champions of the 2026 New Zealand Cheese Awards.
Tracing has indicated that the source of the first velvetleaf find of the 2025-26 crop season, in Auckland, was likely maize purchased in the Waikato region.
Fish & Game New Zealand has announced its election priorities in its Manifesto 2026.
With the forage maize harvest started in Northland and the Waikato, the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) is telling growers of later crops, or those further south, to start checking their maize crop maturity about three weeks prior to when they think they will start silage harvesting.
Irrigation NZ is warning that the government's Resource Management Act (RMA) reform risks falling short of its objectives unless water use for food production and water storage infrastructure are clearly recognised in the goals at the top of the new system.
More than five million trays, or 18,000 tonnes, of Zespri’s RubyRed Kiwifruit will soon be available for consumers across 16 markets this season.

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